For Washuu
by For Washuu
Summary: "What happens to the Tenchiverse if even one "real-life" human is added?" -Story is currently undergoing revision, prior to further chapters being written.-
1. 0: Prelude

Pre-story note:

Tell me, reader, what would be the true result of one run-of-the-mill person being forcefully taken from this world and deposited within another? A world that he knew (and knew well) as fiction? One must consider that "status quo is god", as the tropers say, and therefore the one who can change and control the status quo in that different reality can easily play god with the whole of existence.

To simplify, if you were to be sent into your favorite book, movie, TV show, anime, cartoon, or game, you would quickly find out that opening your mouth at all spells **big** change.  
>Not only for the story, but for you.<p>

* * *

><p>0: Prelude<p>

Imagine a laboratory way out in distant space. Such a place, such a vast laboratory to shame any mad scientist's workshop. A person entering it for the first time could find them self distracted for hours simply by the many wonders within its countless walls. Imagine five whole planets to explore, every one of them filled with the most advanced technology known to any and all races in the universe. Here and there, scattered like trivial and infantile toys, lay great machines of war and devices of the most ingenious crafting, and yet with no attention being paid to them now.

The only thing that concerned the mastermind of this technological fortress was a plain metal table. A table placed so conspicuously in the middle of the floor that an on-looker would most likely pass by it without even realizing it was there. A table, or really what was on that table. Something more advanced and prized than the total of everything else to be seen, a certain something that no amount of time or money or knowledge or expertise could create: One certain human life.

A dull hum of machinery hung in the otherwise-silent room as the greatest scientific genius in the universe looked upon the mutilated form of the boy laying below her. She tucked a wayward strand of long, red hair back into place and rested her head on her hand. Glancing up at a terminal with various colors and shapes flickering across it, she began to question to herself - almost aloud.

'What is it about this boy... numbers don't lie, usually. And besides, nobody can make that happen," she pondered as the computers continued to report their data.

'Unless...'

She paused for a minute and looked back down at the body on the table.

"How DID you get here, boy?" She asked aloud.

The scientist turned back to the computer console. She knew out how to answer her question, and so began to type.

**SET PROGRAM: **SUB-CONSCIENCE ANALYSIS

**QUERY: ~~~~~~~~~**ORIGIN  
><strong>SYSTEM: ~~~~~~~~<strong>CHRON-RECALL  
><strong>PROGRAM VISUAL: ~<strong>NAJA  
><strong>OBSCURE VISUAL: ~<strong>TRUE  
><strong>NON-C AWARE: ~~~<strong>TRUE  
><strong>SUB-C AWARE: ~~~<strong>TRUE  
><strong>C AWARE: ~~~~~~<strong>FALSE; REPORT

**!**REPORT

**!**DISPLAY SCENARIO

"And...execute program." Her words rang out.

The screen flickered, and the form of a young girl with silvery-blue hair appeared on it. The girl turned to face its creator and spoke in a voice that seemed to waft out of the computer's speakers with an almost childish softness.

"Shall I gather the veil now, master?"

The scientist shook her head. "Not yet." She tapped out a command on her keypad, and, when she had finished, a visual copy of the boy on the table formed on the screen. The girl turned toward it.

"Is this the subject, then?"

"Yes, he is. Still..."

The girl looked up at the scientist-genius. "Master, what is it?"

"He shouldn't understand this on his own, but try not to let on to what's happening, alright? I'm not sure how his sub-conscious would react." she explained. "Or if there would be any left." She murmured, mainly to herself.

The girl on the screen nodded knowingly, and, with a toss of her head, a mist came and obscured her features like a silvern shroud.

"Begin," rang out the command.

The boy's mind began to react to the program as it assumed its visage. Every word would scroll across the screen and be logged in the computer's database, but the greatest genius scientist in the universe wanted to see and hear everything personally as it happened in the boy's mind. She leaned toward her screen expectantly.

And within his mind...


	2. 1: Within His Mind

1: Within His Mind

* * *

><p>Mist... and wonder...<br>Peace...quiet...  
>But not too quiet.<p>

Like being next to a shallow waterfall as it lands on a shallow rock with a shallow, pattering noise.

...and all the rest of the world is so deep and distant, far out in the mist.

In such a place a person doesn't bother to think much. One would much rather just **be**, and be without worrying about petty logic and complex thought.

But he'd still hear if someone said _hel__lo, there_.

"What? Oh, hello."

_What's your name?_

"Me? My... my name's Elliot."

_How are you doing?_

"Oh, I guess I'm doing well enough. The scenery here kind of puts me out of it, but I'm fine. And you?"

The misty figure tilted her head, though that might not have been noticed.

_I-_  
>It stopped for a second and formed an answer.<p>

_I'm fine._

A minute passed.

'Such a peaceful silence.' the boy thought to himself. 'No, not silence. Silence is madness. Stillness; a peaceful stillness. Not silence.'

The silver haze came closer to him and -had he paid attention- he would have guessed that it sat down next to him. But he wasn't paying attention to that.

He wasn't really paying attention to anything.

_So, what have you been up to lately?_

"I'm not really sure. It's not something I'm too worried about."

_Could you tell me, please? I don't get to talk to people often here._

Compassion. For once the boy actually looked at the being next to him. He could tell that it was a girl from its voice, and after a minute of staring into the mist around her, he could make out that it was a young girl. Maybe six or seven years old. He thought for a minute that something looked familiar to him, but the mist shifted the thought and it was lost.

"Uh, well, I guess I could."

Somehow he could tell that the girl had a big smile on under all that mist, and he smiled back.

"Let me think for a minute, first," he said as he laid back in the... grass? It wasn't grass. It wasn't rock either, like the noise of the waterfall made it sound. It just... was.

The misty figure descended by him. She didn't seem to recline, she just hovered next to the boy, waiting for him to start.

"Actually, there's a **lot** that could use explaining..." he trailed off.

The mist shifted, waiting for him to begin, but the boy looked hesitant.

"You seem understanding. Do you mind if I ramble for a minute?"

The girl shook her head in approval, but quickly realized that the boy couldn't see her clearly.

_Go ahead. I'll listen. _

"Well, okay."

The boy closed his eyes and began.

* * *

><p>"This past school year... Yeah, I'll start there. This year has been my senior year of high school, and it's probably been the most disturbing and painful school-year to date. It's not really anyone's fault but mine. You see, I've grown tired of the world," He waved his hand around at nothing in particular. "This reality, if you will."<p>

'_Oh, the irony_' the girl thought to herself.

"I've come to understand that there is nothing in the reality I inhabit that is not corrupt, and that nearly all the people around me haven't the slightest clue as to how the world works. They simply don't understand the workings of life." He paused.

"Then again... maybe I'm just talking about my peers." Another pause.

"Anyways, I've grown tired of the world, and one thing that didn't help this at all was my latest obsession with a certain anime: Tenchi Muyo. An amusement of sorts. I had long since stopped reading fantasy novels by the time I started watching Tenchi, mainly for the same reason that the anime has become my ruin now. Novels -especially fantasy novels- are nearly impossible for me to put up with because they portray a world or reality that reflects how the world was meant to be, and should be. Good is good, bad is bad, and... and the good guys **win**, right? And 'happily ever after' and all that stuff, right?"

The boy sighed and shook his head. "I hate reading about that because no matter how much I may wish for such a reality -such as Tenchi Muyo- it will never exist. So I'd read more fantasy or watch more of the videos until it affected me nearly like a drug."

He glanced over at the clouded face of the girl. Was she getting his drift? He was pretty sure she had a blank stare, but, again, he was only guessing.

"Aww, never mind. Let me back up to a few days ago, at..." he thought for a minute "at the concert."

_Okay. What happened there?_

"I had spent the day volunteering in setting up and tearing down a concert at a local concert hall that I hang around, so I was totally spent when I got home. You see, I had gotten up at seven o'clock to arrive early, and ended up getting home at half past one. That is to say, one o'clock **after** midnight.

"Pretty much the whole next morning as I made my way to school I was both half-asleep from staying up so late, and terribly depressed and grumpy from my usual wishes for a better world to live in. Again, it was -no, it **is**- my fetish, and it nags at me the worst when I'm fatigued like I was then. Sleepiness wasn't new, but on that day I felt an aching hunger, as if something was continuously imploding in my stomach, pulling on my insides.

"At school I pretty much slept with my eyes open for the first two periods, unable to handle both the over-bearing aching and my nearly surreal mental state. By the time third period ended, however, the drowsiness and hunger were totally gone, replaced by ubiquitous pain, an uncanny alertness, and a burning energy from inside. It seemed like everywhere that I could, I ached, and yet... it all felt so real. And I felt very... powerful."

The mist shifted uneasily.

"Anyway, as the day progressed, the aching and intense energy became overwhelming, and I had no trouble checking out of school on the convincingly real excuse of a fever. When I got in my '96 Ford Ranger -gosh, I love that truck- all of a sudden my seemingly never-ending mental jukebox stopped what it had been playing and jumped to a different song all together."

The girl in the mist suddenly could hear a song float by her like the waving tail-end of a kite.

_**I am the fever that burns your skin**_  
><em><strong>The addiction, the ancient sin<strong>_

"I found it ironic that-"

_Hold on a minute - What music?_

"Hmm? Oh, you mean my 'Mental Jukebox'?" He asked, embarrassed.

_Yes, what's that supposed to be?_

"Umm, how do I say this?" He thought for a bit.

"People crack jokes that I live and breathe music. In truth, it _is_ always in my head, and I don't always have control over what song is playing - especially since I have so much music to listen to. Since I know most of it by heart (and head, obviously), you could ask me at any time of the day or night what's playing in my head and I'd have an answer for you."

He paused again and looked down. "Usually it reflects my mood, so sometimes it just makes things worse."

'_How sad._'_  
><em>The mist shimmered and shook for the slightest moment.  
><em>As you were saying?<em>

"Uh, yeah. Right." The boy started. "So, as I was saying, I found it ironic that my obsession would be so decimating to me that it brings to mind a song about drunkenness."

_Think about that moment for me, okay?_

The boy nodded, and the song returned. The girl could make out a high, gritty tenor voice wailing along to an 80's sounding track.

_**I am the reputation that makes you loose face**_  
><em><strong>I am the fear that presents no case<strong>_

She could see in the boy's mind as he tried to make his mind 'play' a different song as he drove home on that day. He had been so frustrated, trying for once to counter his sadness and despair.

"I kept trying to distract myself - to switch what song I was thinking of, but whenever I would..."

Another song floated through the mist. The same singer, the girl concluded.

**_I'm standing on the sword of the dragon_**  
><strong><em>He can't pull it from beneath my feat<em>**

"It didn't really help the situation much. Every song I ended up hearing in my head was some sort of song of fantasy."  
>And again the song changed.<p>

**_Where will you be when the moon turns to blood?_**  
><strong><em>When the sun won't shine, and the stars fall from above?<em>**

The mist brooded. _What did you do then?_

The boy shook his head. "I started running through all the songs I had in my head, wondering just why the only ones coming up were songs of fantasy." The boy raised his head in annoyance. "Really, fantasy! Of all things." He glared at nothing in particular.

_What was so bad with that?_

"All of those songs reflect those realities I can't have, that's why."

The boy suddenly seemed to get a thought, but the mist shifted once again and the expression of thought passed from the boy's face.

'_Let's keep you non-lucid right now, okay?_' Thought the girl in the mist. She waited.

"Uh... well... either way." Elliot shook his head in confusion. "I fumbled around in my head, trying to find the song I was looking for. It wasn't the safest thing to be doing, distracting myself that much, but then again I don't know why it was so distracting. Come to think of it, I was distracting myself so much that I almost missed a turn and I had to brake hard and swing the wheel around quick." An extremely annoyed expression crossed the boy's face. "I almost ran off the road when I hit the horn by accident, because I always jump back when I do that. I HATE it when-"

The boy's reiteration suddenly stopped and he put a hand to his head, wincing. Back in the lab, the genius also had an annoyed expression on her face. Throwing her fingers across her translucent keyboard, she swore at the screen.

"Can't you just stop thinking long enough to finish?" the redhead scolded. Her fingers stopped on a key and she waited for the boy's memories to start unspooling again.

On the screen, the boy relaxed. Reluctantly, the scientist did as well.

**_Close the hatches and lower the sails_**  
><strong><em>This storm is whipping great balls of hail<em>**

"I had almost reached the gravel road to my house when that happened, and from that point on, I seemed to grow more and more agitated and broody."

_Broody? You?  
><em>The misty girl giggled.  
><em>Really, now. What do you mean by that?<em>

The boy considered for a minute before replying.

"I'm not really sure. Something just didn't feel right. Heck, nothing felt right, from then up till-"

The mist cut him off.  
><em>So, what happened next?<em>

**_Tempest is raging, pulling us down_**  
><strong><em>Time to learn to swim, boy, or time to drown.<em>**

"Right about then I hit the gravel. Nothing new to me, just another part of my route home: 'Out of the city to Ellis Boulevard, a paved road, down that until the pavement turns to gravel, and then a mile past Ramelsburg Hill with all the trees.' Thanks, mom. Every day of the week." The boy remembered something and chucked. "Everyone else in my family gets so annoyed that we live west of town, because it means that the sun is in our eyes both going into town in the morning and coming home in the evening. I don't care - I like it. I've always liked the sight of the rising sun and the feel of the sun shining through my windshield, and I often look up toward it."

'Even if mom does say I'll go blind from doing that.' The boy added silently.

_Interesting._

"It is!" the boy agreed. "Especially on that day." He added almost proudly.

_Oh? How so?_

"Well, it was only just nearing noon at that time, so the sun should have been directly above me, and yet... behind the hill, there was..."

**_Oars have broke, your time to kneel_**  
><strong><em>This storm is screaming with the vengeance to KILL<em>**

"I gunned the gutless engine in my truck to get up Ramelsburg hill, like I usually do when I get to that spot in the rout home, and I looked up, and..."

The girl was becoming a little impatient.  
><em>And? And what?<em>

"Well, I saw the hill, and the road, and the forest on the left, and maybe... a light shining over from the other side of the hill? It was like an oncoming car at night, but brighter, even brighter than that. It was as if the sun was directly behind the hill! And it was the middle of the day!"

The boy turned to the mist for a second. "How the heck is that supposed to happen when it's not dark? How could that happen?"

_I don't know.  
><em>The mist replied glibly.  
><em>Some odd things...happen, you know.<em>

"But it had been bright as day one minute-"

The boy stopped altogether, his memory suspended.

The redhead back in the lab held her finger on one key as it glowed red, her fierce glare leveled at the screen and the boy on it. Slowly she turned where she sat. Her finger never left the key it was on as her gaze shifted to the boy on the table. The genius's eyes narrowed as she made a very rare gut decision and lifted her finger. She spun back and continued watching.

_**Faith is plunged into the sea beneath**_  
><em><strong>The waves beat the ship with iron fists to sink<strong>_

* * *

><p>songs used<p>

Bride:

_Whiskey Seed -_ watch?v=iRKnwTbvlFo

_Hell No_ - watch?v=Nn0czITfa88

_Heroes -_ watch?v=sYY4vCWO7E8

_The First will be Last -_ watch?v=bxW3Nu70kcs


	3. 2: Transfer

Transfer  
><em>To convey from one person, place, or situation to another. [move, shift]<em>  
><em>To cause to pass from one to another. [transmit, transform, change]<em>  
><em>To make over the possession or control of. [convey]<em>  
><em>To print or otherwise copy from one surface to another by contact.<em>  
><em>To move to a different place, region, or situation.<em>

Consider what transfer looks like. Consider this: the greater distance transferred in a set amount of time, the greater the effect is on the subject transferred. This is why people go "Oooh!" when they are in a plane taking off.

Now tell me what it looks like to be transferred from one reality to another.

* * *

><p>2: Transfer<p>

* * *

><p>The boy's hands were shaking slightly as he continued where he had left off.<p>

"That's right. I was going up the hill. Ramulsburg Hill, as it's called by some in the area, and the light... I don't know. It was just there, and I can't figure out why I could see it. It was still midday, and I could see the tree-line going up and stopping at the top of the hill, and then... light?"

_What was happening?_

"I was getting really scared of whatever it was, and I started all-out panicking when my foot wouldn't come off the gas. It was like it was stuck there, driving me up the hill towards that... thing.

"When I looked up again -it felt like minutes but it must have been as little as seconds- I saw the sky growing dim as I watched."

The girl started.  
><em>Say what?<em>

"No, really! Just looking at the sky, I could see it going dark... like a storm was rolling in at an incredible speed. Like... like a tornado had come there in a matter of seconds."

_**Sky grew black, and like an engine humming,**_  
><em><strong>I could tell it was my time<strong>_

_Wow. I've never heard of something like that happening. Even on-_  
>The girl stopped herself, but the boy didn't even notice.<p>

"I was just cresting the hill when the light hit me. It didn't blind me, but it seemed to shine everything else into their own shadows. It totally blocked any view down the road, and it took me a minute to realize that it was because the source of the light was wider than the road itself! It was directly in front of me, and wasn't moving at all. Come to think of it, neither was I."

The girl looked at him oddly.

"It felt like time... No, time hadn't slowed, it had stopped moving. It was like everything-me, my truck, the trees, and the... the 'thing'-all were suspended in the moment.

_**I could hear the sound of my heartbeat thumping**_  
><em><strong>And it echoes in my mind<strong>_

"I could still move, and the light still shimmered. The light... it was all from one lamp on the front of the thing and-"

The boy stopped again, scared of his memories.

"It had gone red. The whole scene had gone red with the light from the lamp. Blood red and cold. It felt so empty and-"

The misty figure cut him off.  
><em>What happened next?<em>

"More light appeared, engulfing the scene, and my truck and everything surrounding it was seemingly blasting to pieces as a massive, robed, angelic figure burst into view between my truck and the... thing bearing down on me."

_**Fear is the driver, we fight for our lives**_  
><em><strong>We're not afraid of death, but we don't want to die<strong>_

"Behind the sudden shining figure I could still easily make out the wavering image of the hulk that had been bearing down on me. It appeared the be some sort of space ship, but above all else, it reminded me of the Phantom Train with a most wicked and menacing sort of iron mouth pasted on the front of it. Or of a carnivore whale, come to tear me to shreds. Erie, tentacle-like tubes were slowly, slowly sliding out from between the gaping jaws like snakes' tongues."

_**Prayed out loud and clung to the deck**_  
><em><strong>No glory for sailors when they've been ship-wrecked<strong>_

"My focus was shifted to the angelic figure hovering between me and the demonic-looking ship. Its face was obscured by the overwhelming light it radiated, but I could tell that its form rose far above the ship behind it and sank far below the grade of the road. Its white and blue robes billowed as a beam of hideous black light burst from the mouth of the ship, heading straight toward me! The beam inched its way on and on, bearing down on me... but before the beam could reach me, the shining figure raised its arms outward and the the sinister light hit it and shot away. Kind of like a waterfall hitting the ground, but a lot more intimidating." The boy grimaced.

"Intimidating, Hah! More like 'pants-wetting scary'".

The girl smiled from within the mist. The boy was getting tired.  
>'<em>Perhaps this will all work out, master.<em>'

"For a moment, it was very quiet. I hung there, dazed in the darkness and void. There was nothing else, until..." The boy took a moment and collected his thoughts. "The figure's eyes shot open with the sound of thunder, and before I even had the chance to try to look at the figure's face," he snapped his fingers. "Time was unceremoniously snapped back to its normal rate. The truck, which I was one again in, hit the ground and it skidded off into the woods as I uselessly jerked the wheel back and forth trying to regain control!"

The scientist's head hit her desk and snapped back up to glare at the screen in disbelief.

"Gaah! Couldn't you just settle down for a minute?" she yelled at the unhearing boy. And then she realized something.

"Wait, now that's not consistent." She looked to a different screed and checked a line of data on it before reluctantly typing another command into in console. And another. And another.  
>"Not good!"<p>

The boy had stopped talking and held a thoughtful look for a short minute.

"Wait a second," he started. "What woods? There aren't woods-"

_Forget the woods, I want to hear what happened next! What happened?_

"Well, I..." The boy looked very embarrassed. "I went right into a tree. The whole front end of the truck had been totally ruined, and the windshield had a hole in it where a tree limb had punched through the safety glass. And that's... that's how it was. I kept thinking... and I KEEP thinking... I don't know what I hit, because I know that the tree-line ended, I mean ends, at the top of the hill.

The boy looked lost in a daze for a minute until he suddenly perked up.

"So! What do you think of that?" He asked the misty girl. She considered frantically, computing a sedating answer. A boring answer.

_I think it's remarkable! I like how you set a backing tone with the music in your head as well as-_  
>And she continued on. One genius scientist tapped a button and got up to stretch a little, until...<p>

**_Don't be deceived by what you might see,_**  
><strong><em>As it was for me every day<em>**

The boy spontaneously shot upright. "I remember now! I was surprised while looking out the splintered glass."

"Huh?" the redhead spun back to the screen showing the scene with the boy.

"That's right, the tree I'd hit wasn't any kind that grows in Iowa..." the boy continued

"He shouldn't be able to remember anything now!" she yelled and ducked back over to her console.

"And that house? I know I've seen it before. With that lake... and that deck..."

"What's happening?" the scientist once again typing like mad.

"And there was that boy of to the left, too. I recognized him, too!"

"Not good!" Red hair seemed to fly from one screen to another, and back to the keyboard.

"Tenchi? Was that his name?"

The girl appeared on an isolated screen in the scientist's lab. "What the heck is he doing?" The genius asked 'her'. What let him slip loose?"

"I don't know! I just did what you programmed me to, how would I know what's going on in there?"

"And the guy seemed surprised to hear his name."

The scientist went back to hammering at her keyboard. "Not now, not now... No! He's going to break through to consciousness!" She growled.

"Of course, I was like 'Yeah right', sarcastically to myself, and..."

"YOU CAN'T DIE ON ME YET!"

"I guess I just passed out on the horn and..."

'Forget it.' she thought to herself with resignation. She turned to face the boy's body.

"...then where am I now? I must be dreaming. Shouldn't I wake-"

Red hair obscured a shaky finger as it flipped a switch on the side of the table. Just as consciousness started to break even, just as the boy's eyes started to crack open, they fell heavily shut again. His mind once again entrapped itself.

Because the Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe didn't know what else she could do.

* * *

><p>songs used<p>

Bride:

_Hell No -_ watch?v=Nn0czITfa88

_Under the Influence -_ watch?v=qOuo-UoVkCA


	4. 3: The Dormant Mind

3: The Dormant Mind

* * *

><p>"Miss Washu? Miss Washu?" Echoed a blond voice through the cavernous laboratory. The genius tensed.<p>

"Huh? Mihoshi? Say back! I told you-"

"It's alright, Washu. I'm here." A third voice cut in as its owner walked into the dim lighting of the scientist's inner sanctum. Ayeka -crown princess of Jurai- was the speaker, and it told the petite, red-headed scientist that she needn't worry for her lab.

However, Washu still couldn't let them see what had kept her shut up in her lab for the last four days. Not quite yet.

"No, Ayeka, Mihoshi; whatever it is, I can't help you. I'm still busy."

"Aww, aren't you ever going to get done with that, Washu? Say, just what is it that's kept you all cooped up in here?" The officer was about to start looking around, but Ayeka knew better.

"Come along, miss Mihoshi." She retorted. "I'm not about to leave you in this lab to wreak havoc on... whatever it is Washu is working on now, so we'll just have to wait to see what she's up to."

Washu smiled behind their backs as Ayeka half-dragged the protesting blond up the steps to the door. "Yeah, you'll see, that's for sure."

Ayeka stopped just short of opening the subspace-portal door to leave. "Did you say something?"

"Oh, nothing Ayeka, nothing at all!" the scientist replied with a grin.

The princess looked befuddled. "Ah- well... If you say so, miss Washu," she agreed and stepped through the doorway, through millions of light-years, and into the Masaki home.

Chagrin covered the redhead's face. "LITTLE Washu! I told you to call me LITTLE Washu!"

She sighed and grudgingly returned to the console giving read-outs on the boy.

The boy she couldn't explain. The boy who, for once, presented a challenge to the greatest genius scientist in the universe.

Washu chuckled at the thought and leaned against the table.

"It would seem that you'll just have to decide to wake up on your own." She said to the comatose 17-year-old.

'But who knows when that will happen? Even I can't say for certain if the layers of his mind will re-align.' Washu thought to herself. She had flipped the switch on the bindings she placed to hold his conscious and sub-conscious together, keeping him from awakening when his body was too weak to sustain full consciousness.

"But even when your body heals, no outside stimulus will be able to wake you. You'll have to want to... Elliot." Her finger traced a meaningless pattern on the boy's forehead. She sighed.

"I have got to get some sleep," The scientist said and got up from the table. "Tomorrow. I'll worry more about all this tomorrow." Content to wait, she turned and walked through a door that hadn't been there before. The door closed, faded, and the room was still.

* * *

><p>"Washu. was that... Washu?" The boy saw a scene. A scene of him -dying and bloodied- at the wheel. As he gazed down upon himself, a blurry form approached and circled his truck. It left, and something in the sky cast a shadow over the area. The shadow hazed, and then he, the truck, and tree that had lodged itself into the engine... were gone. A dull shadow of their image remained for a short moment, and then melted and sank out of sight.<p>

"What? Where am I?" The boy cried out. He felt himself being pulled away from the scene, but he didn't move. He hung there, pulled on and pulled on, until the scene faded to black.

He couldn't see, and yet... he liked it. Nothing to hear, nothing to see, nothing to know, but-

"Where am I? WHERE AM I?" He cried out before blanking, before contentedness enveloped him.


	5. 4: He?

4: "He?"

* * *

><p>"Everybody, I have an announcement to make."<p>

It was dinner time at the Masaki house, and its various inhabitants had gathered to eat.

After a week of absence, they hadn't expected Washu to show up for dinner...

"It's about my latest work."

...Much less for her to have news about what had been keeping her busy for so long.

All eyes were on the scientist now, even Ryoko, who had been planning to have a good time with her saké. Miso and rice now set aside, everybody waited for the genius to continue.

"You all know I've been busy for a while now,"

"You have?" piped up a tanned GP detective. Ryoko and Ayeka face-vaulted.

"Of _course_ she has, you nitwit!" the pirate shot back.

"Really, now, Mihoshi, where have you been the past week?" Ayeka chided.

"I- I didn't know, I just-" Mihoshi began to reply, but Ryoko and Ayeka were already on her again.

Washu looked at the situation with annoyance. Even after twenty thousand years, she was still irritated to no end by certain things.

"LISTEN UP, WILL YOU?" She shouted at the bickering "adults". They quickly sat back down, but the two continued to glare at the ditsy blond across the table.

"Now that I have your attention **again**, I have a little something to show you: the subject of my latest work."

* * *

><p>"Uhhmm... Whaere aem... Ai?" The boy looked around the lab in disbelief. He looked, or tried to look, turning his head from side to side as he lay on the cold, metal examination table.<p>

"Th- This isss..." He began to say, but-

"Ohhhhh, my head."

He really wasn't ready to process his surroundings at that point. Right then he just wanted to know what had happened and why he couldn't move - especially since he wasn't in any way restrained.

'Wait, Elliot, your head moved. Do that again.' He shook his head no, telling himself that he was too weak to start moving again.

'Good! So you can move your head. Now lift a finger.' His mind continued.

'Now listen here!' he thought back. He shoved a finger in his own face accusingly. 'You're getting a bit to cocky, ordering me around like-'

'Good! You got your whole arm off the table! Nice work, Elliot.'

The boy's mind was quiet as he stared at the finger he had pointed at himself. A slow minute passed.

'Really?' The boy thought to himself in the flattest tone he could imagine.

'I guess we'd better be getting up now, shouldn't we?' His thoughts hinted to him.

'Sure. Whatever.' He conceded. Pain returned to his body as he rolled and pushed, clumsily rising from the table. 'Anything to get you to shut up.'

* * *

><p>"And here he is!" Washu said with a final keystroke. She snapped her fingers and a holo-screen appeared next to the table.<p>

"He?" Ayeka wondered. The screen came to life and a view of the genius' lab came up. In view was a tall console, an examination table, and-

"What? Where is he?" Washu exclaimed. Her finger traced the laptop's screen, panning the view of her laboratory back and forth. She squinted at the screed and pondered. "How did he-"

"You keep saying 'he', Little Washu." Tenchi noted, confused.

"Yeah, is it someone we're supposed to meet?" Nobuyuke added.

"As if you'd care much about guys." Ryoko said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tenchi's father shot back.

"Settle down, will you!" Washu commanded.

* * *

><p>Elliot had known pain in his life, in fact he and pain were pretty good acquaintances. He couldn't remember when he didn't have abrasions and cuts from the various activities and games he'd play, mostly on his own. He never cared to bandage them, though - he knew that they would heal in time.<p>

He counted as he walked across the lab.

One: arm.  
><span>Two: foot.<span>  
><span>Three: hand.<span>  
><span>Four: shoulder.<span>  
><span>Five: foot...again.<span>  
><span>Six...<span>

He stopped at the door of the laboratory and looked, but he couldn't see through the hazy glass in front of him.

...skull.  
><span>  
>"Gosh I've broken a lot of bones in my time." he thought to himself with a dry tone. He reminisced on his various capers - from tire-swing failures to a rollover accident in a minivan.<p>

Yes... yes, the boy had been a knowing host of pain for years.

He pushed open the door and pivoted. 'Left.' the boy thought to himself. He kept walking because he knew that the second he stopped, he would have time to think too much about all the pain he was feeling.

He mused about it anyways.

'Gosh. I don't think I've ever been so intimate with pain before. It's so cozy I could puke.' The boy smirked as he walked and limped and thought. He wondered if he'd recognize the people he'd seen clustered around a TV screen when he exited the lab. They had seemed familiar, but they had slipped out of his line of sight when he turned. 'And I just walked through a... a kitchen?' He asked himself as he exited the building. He turned and plodded in a different direction.

'Um... I think so.' his mind replied.

'Some help you are. Why don't you tell me which way to go next, mister brains?' He didn't even notice his unintentional pun.

'Turn left again.' He did.

'Wait, I turned left a minute ago?'

'That would be right,' his memory noted.

'No, he turned left,' he himself shot back.

'I'm not saying that. I mean that he turned the right way,' Memory retorted.

'As in to the right? I don't think so!'

'I didn't say that I said that you were correct in saying-'

'That's it! Everybody -strike that- any part of my mind that is communicating with me, quit it!' the boy ordered, and there was (finally) quiet in his head.

He plodded on, and limped, and turned, and limped, and plodded on.

* * *

><p>Washu rose from where she sat. "Never mind. I'll just go and find him."<p>

"Miss Washu, who is this person you keep referring to?" Ayeka inquired.

"Yeah, who are you talking about?" Mihoshi added.

"I told you," the genus scientist spat back from the lab door "_not_ to call me **miss**!"

The door slammed, and a truly awkward moment ensued as everyone in turn looked to the others and continued to stare at the door to Washu's lab.

"More miso?" Sasami offered, timidly.

Five bowls slid toward the center of the table and Sasami reached for the ladle, but it didn't feel like it was scooping up anything. When she actually looking at the center bowl, she realized that it was completely empty.

"Oops!" The others at the table looked as well, and Sasami blushed. "I'll get it."

The young girl went off to the kitchen to retrieve some more soup, only to come back seconds later empty-handed.

"Tenchi, I... I think something's been in the kitchen while we were eating."

"Really? What's wrong?"

"There's... umm..." Sasami trailed off.

"Well, whatever it is, I'll take care of it." Nobuyuke chimed in. He got up and was in the doorway to the kitchen when he quickly stopped, his mouth open.

"Gaaa! Blood! What's THAT doing there?" He cried out. Everybody was up and at the door then, staring at the sparse, red drip-marks that traced from one side of the kitchen to the other.

"Oh, my goodness!." Mihoshi exclaimed.

"What in the world is going on?" Tenchi asked, looking at the rest of them. They all wore the same expression he had, so he looked back at the kitchen, trying to find the source of this new... development.

"I think," a voice behind them drawled. Six heads spun back to eye the source of the voice.

"That would be me."


	6. 5: Stowaway to the Tree Planet

5: Stowaway to the Tree Planet

* * *

><p>Shayne. His name is Shayne.<p>

'W- what am I doing?'

Lying on a warm stone. He bolted upright, only to clutch his head.

'Oh, God, that hurts. What happened?'

His vision was too hazy to discern much clearly, but he noticed a shaded area of his vision.

'Looks like shade, and... a tree? Good, I'm gettin' over there.' Shayne rose and stumbled toward the darker area only to trip over a high, sharp curb and fall flat on his face. He cursed aloud.

'God, I hate this!' Again, he rose and made his way toward the nearby tree. Unfortunatly , his blurry eyesight didn't see the branch stretched out in line with his nose until it was two inches away.

"Holy-!" Shayne dropped, and the branch missed, flipping his hat off.

Shayne stared at where he though the branch must be before putting his back to the tree. His eyesight slowly cleared, as did his very befuddled mind.

He took a deep breath and looked over at his fallen hat.

"Huh. Cardinals." He grinned and chuckled. "Well, at least that's one thing going right." He looked down at himself.

"Yeah, so I'm clothed. Body is... okay." He jammed the hat back on his head and looked around.

"This place... does NOT look familiar at all."

* * *

><p><em>Cedar Vale Academy.<em>

'Hey, that's that one brat's truck, isn't it? Yeah that's him gettin' in...'

_After the third bell._

'He always seems to have something weird going on, like he's special or something.'

_A red truck._

'Always thinking. Always listening to that crappy old MP3 player.'

_Going to the red Ranger with his backpack._

'Does that kid do anything but think and doodle and write? Wait. Why would he have his backpack with him?'

_Getting in his red truck. Starting it up._

_Curses._

"He's leavin' early! That little-"  
>'He's gotta be up to something weird!'<p>

The red truck moved back toward Shayne, and he jumped at the chance - literally. Before Elliot had even shifted back into gear to leave, his classmate had stowed away in the bed of the truck.

* * *

><p>"Hey!"<p>

A voice jerked Shayne awake, who still bathed in the friendly shade of the tree.

'I was asleep? Weird.'

Shayne looked up at the source of the voice. "What's with you?"

Before him stood a young boy maybe ten years of age, blond, dressed like nobody he had ever seen before in his life, and carrying an oddly warped staff. Shayne spoke his mind.

"Kid, I'll be honest. I have never seen anyone looking quite as weird as you are right now."

"Yeah? Well, you're wearing pretty odd clothes yourself, you know."

"Hey! Who are you to call a good old T-shirt 'odd'?" the indignant teen retorted. The boy's staff leveled between Shayne's eyes.

"I'll have you know I'm a lot older than I look, you know."

Shayne looked at the boy suspiciously, leaned back, and paused before batting the staff away. He stood and began to walk down the road.

"Kid, you're no more than eleven years old, and I don't care what I look like, 'cause you look- YEAAAOUCH!"

He fell. And swore.

"What was THAT for?" Shayne yelled up at the boy standing over him, staff extended.

"I'm not joking! I've been state-frozen for milennia - familial disputes, you see? So really I'm quite a bit your elder!"

Shayne shook his head and stood to gesture at the boy. "Kid, that doesn't even make sense! Even if you were... whatever, for the past however-many years, you weren't doing anything, were you? So you're no smarter than you were before."

The younger boy stopped short and thought.

"Hm. I guess... you'd be right?"

Shayne stared at the confounded boy for a minute before turning and gazing at the city they were in. They stood on the edge of a strikingly smooth stone road that ran to the suburbs in one direction and the country-side in the other. Now that he had a minute to stare at the buildings' tilted architecture and towers and the many, MANY trees it seemed that...

"Hey," A hand tapped him on the shoulder. Shayne turned back to the younger boy and was forced into a handshake.

"Mikumo"

"Uh, yeah. Mik..Mikumo. I'm Shayne."

"Shayne? Oh, you do have a silly name!" the boy giggled and lightly knocked the older boy in the head with his staff.

"Hey, Shayne!"

"What." Came the exasperated reply.

"Why don't you come over to my house for the day? I haven't had friends over in a few thousand, and we could have all sorts of fun!"

This wasn't new to Shayne. He had been a favorite of the young, a bane to the old, and cursed by his peers for as long as he could remember.

'Oh, why not?' He thought to himself wearily and shrugged.

"Come on, let's go!" The all-too-enthusiastic Mikumo spouted.

Shayne made to keep up with the young boy but hadn't been pulled more than two steps before collapsing, blacked out, on the grass.

* * *

><p><em>Riding.<em>

_Riding, stowed away._

_In a red truck._

_And it hits the gravel._

'what the-? Why's the sky gotten so dark all the sudden?'

He carefully raised his head over the side of the truck bed. And then he bolted up right.

_Light._

'That...'

_Light, beyond the hill._

'...is so...'

They sky grew dark, and the engine hummed, and it was time.

Shayne swore, and swore, and swore. He nearly stood and lashed out obscenities to match the wind lashing back in his face. Because he had absolutely no clue what was going on.

'Oh, Christ! I knew that guy was up to no good!'

_Under the dark sky, a bright light._

_Within the light, a darkness_

_And within that darkness-_

'I'm dead. I'm so dead. I'm not even an adult, and some screwed-up supernatural experience is going to send me straight to Hell, I-am-so-DEAD!'

Shayne screamed into the wind as it pulled at him, trying to tip him off his feet.  
>"WHY DID I GET OUT OF BED TODAY?!"<p>

_Different lights, the shimmering and pulse that blasts away all in sight._

'Th- the light... is...'

* * *

><p>"Oh, GOD!" Shayne swore, bolting upright. On a bed. In a house.<p>

"Eh? What's that?" Mikumo retorted, a hand on his ear. He sat kneeled at a low table on which he had set his staff.

"I- Was I dreaming?"

Mikumo Smacked himself in the forehead. "Just maybe! How else would you become fearful in your sleep? What, are you amnesiac?"

"Uh, amnesia! Right." The older boy fibbed. "That's why everything seemes so familiar." He grinned at Mikumo. Who glared back.

"Hey, you were frozen or something for- however long it was. What's so weird about me losing a little bit of memory?"

The younger boy tapped the table with his staff and looked the other way.

"Ah, okay. You win." Mikumo conceded.

Shayned sighed and relaxed. 'God, this is weird.'

He rose from the bed carefully, recalling what had happened the last time he got up too quickly.

"Hey, how did you get me back h-"

"Well, then! How about you come visit Lady Seto at the palace with me tomorrow?" Mikumo cut Shayne off.

"Seto?" he replied with surprise. The name sounded familiar.

"...That's an interesting name."

"You're not nervous?" Mikumo asked with concern.

"Hey, for all I know I'm dead or having a really screwed-up dream right now, so I'm not too worried about anything but getting rid of this headache." Shayne retorted snobbishly. "Oh, Christ-" He clutched his head and ducked as another wave of 'ouch' hit his head.

"Well, I hope that attitude changes soon, stranger." Mikumo warned.

Shayne looked up at the boy. "Yeah, why's that?"

"Because if you keep up that attitude around me, Lady Seto will doubtless become quite interested in you."


	7. 6: Contact

6: Contact

* * *

><p>It's a weird feeling when a person realizes that they have no clue what to say. It's an even weirder feeling when they happen to be surrounded by other people who haven't the slightest idea what to say. And they're all stuttering and gaping at the same thing.<p>

A thing such as a boy in his later teens - his left arm laid in a cast, his whole right leg braced in steel and pivoted at the knee.

A thing with a black eye. Or two.

A thing that looks like he got in a jousting match with a tree and lost. Badly.

A thing with a blatant gash running down the whole length of his right arm, and what might be described as a dent rendered in his right shoulder.

A thing that had just unknowingly dripped blood from one end of the Masaki's kitchen to the other, and who was now leaning against the open door across the dining area. None of the others had even heard or noticed when he slid the door open; they were too perplexed over the sudden appearance of BLOOD in the kitchen.

That was, until he spoke. His croaking words had pulled their attention away from that disconcerting sight and straight onto another: himself.

"What the-" Nobuyuke began to exclaim, but Ryoko was ahead of him.

"Hey, who are you?" She demanded of the boy. "And what makes you think you can just come in and start bleeding all over the place, anyways?" The pirate advanced on the boy, but Tenchi held her back.

"You're one to be talking, Ryoko." The bleeding teen shot back at her.

"You've made a great imposition on us, whoever you are, so why don't you just-" Ayeka cut her sentence short.

"W-What did you just say?" Tenchi, Ryoko and Ayeka asked simultaneously.

"Oh, nothing important." The boy replied, brushing off the question of names. "Y'know, I was hoping that a home like this one would have a bit more hospitality for someone in this... condition." He gestured to his numerous injuries.

An awkward moment passed as the various members of the Masaki home stared at their intruder and murmured back and forth to each other, trying to decide what to do about this development. The person in question just leaned against the sliding glass door and sighed.

Sasami, however, wasn't bothering to talk with the others. She soon left the group and approached the boy, much to the surprise of the rest of the house. He was taken aback when the young princess suddenly grabbed his good hand and pulled him over to the low table and made him sit there in her place. She then picked up the center bowl and rushed off to the kitchen to fill it again. The others parted and watched as she passed.

"Hmm. She doesn't seem to mind blood being there anymore." Ryoko noted.

"Still," Ayeka added, and she glared at the boy, drawing the gaze of everyone else to him as well. The boy blanched and grinned nervously at them.

"Uh, hi, ther-" his voice cracked and he coughed. "Hi there. Oh, and I didn't mean to... you know. On the kitchen."

Five faces still looked at him apprehensively. He stared back at the table.

"Aww, great. I've gotten everybody mad at me." He paused. "Now what?"

"Rest!" Sasami's voice carried from the kitchen. "You're hurt and you shouldn't be standing around," She continued, and then poked her head around the kitchen door. "So just sit there and rest until Washu can come and take a look at you!" She ducked back into the kitchen.

The boy chuckled and shook his head. "Trust Sasami to be the most level-headed of you all. Hah!"

"Yeah, well that still doesn't tell us how you know our names," Ryoko warned the boy.

"He does seem to know a lot about us," Nobuyuke agreed.

"Um, I just-"

"Just how much do you know about us, anyways?" Ayeka cut off the boy's apology.

"Ayeka, Ryoko! Don't be so hard on him," Tenchi chided. "There's got to be some reason for... hm?" He stopped when he noticed the stranger's finger pointed at him.

"Tenchi Masaki,"

"Uh, yes?"

"Age seventeen," Elliot continued. "You recently blew up your high school with a lot of help from-" His finger strayed to Ryoko, "Ryoko Hakubi, notorious space pirate of the past five thousand years under Kagato's-.

"Kagato's DEAD." Ryoko replied sternly.

"Well. It's good to know when I am." The boy replied with an oversized grin. "Anyways, you were recently released from Yosho's seal by Tenchi and have spent most of the time since then bickering with a certain crown princess of Jurai." His finger now pointed at an aghast Ayeka.

"Ayeka Masaki Jurai. Who is currently re-growing her spaceship, Ryo-oh."

Sasami returned from the kitchen with a cup of steaming tea.

"Ayeka, I don't understand it, what's going on?" Mihoshi whispered.

"And this," Elliot said, gladly accepting the cup, "Is her younger sister, Sasami. The only person in the house who can cook. Except possibly Tenchi's father," again his finger moved, now to "Nobuyuke."

There was a stunned silence as the strange boy took a drink.

"Well, now. That's what I call a good cup of t-"

"Heeeeeyyy!" His compliment was overridden by a certain blond.

"Oh, yes! That's right." Elliot joked, grinning again. "Mihoshi Kuramistu," He tilted his head and winked at the tall character. "First-class detective with the GP,"

"Yes, that's me!" Mihoshi added happily.

"...and the resident genius ditz in this house." The boy added through another drink of tea.

The silence continued, further agitating the boy.

"Oh, come on! As if there's nothing any of you have to say? Normally you guys can't stop!"

"Well then," Tenchi stepped forward and extended a hand to his visitor. "Welcome to the Masaki house!" They shook hands rather awkwardly.

"Yeah, and by the way, why DO you know so much about us?" Tenchi added more quietly, suspicious.

"What do you mean?" Elliot retorted. "I'm just an ordinary seventeen-year-old high school student like you, Tenchi!" the boy instantly burst out laughing. "Oh, MAN, that's a good one! I can't believ- OW! Oh, ooch- my... Arrrh, that hurts." Some blood began to drip onto the carpet and the boy clutched his gashed arm.

"Oh, not again!" Sasami complained. "Where's Washu?"

"Yeah, get the redhead in here," Elliot added. "I've got a score to settle with-"

Just then the door opposite of the table opened and Washu emerged. She had an unusually confused expression as she closed the door.

"I don't get it," Washu commented. "He was just there, Tenchi, and then- HEY!"

"Looking for me, Little Washu?" The stranger quipped and smirked.

"Hey! Ah- you're here!" She stuttered back.

Ryoko ws indignant. "What? Your telling me that this kid is what's had you cooped up so secretly for the past week?"

"Hush, Ryoko. And, Elliot- you're coming with me." Washu commanded and pulled the teen up from where he was sitting.

"Wait, how do you know my name?" The boy asked as Washu began dragging him back toward her massive laboratory.

"THAT'S WHAT WE'D LIKE TO KNOW!" Several voices shot back.

Washu stopped and turned to the stranger of the house. "Well, Elliot? Why not tell them how? I think they can take it."

An uncaring expression came to the boy's face as he addressed the locals. "Alright, then. I'm dreaming"

Washu smacked her forehead. "Aww, idiot!"

"And if I'm dreaming, I should be able to breathe even if my nose is plugged." He pinched his nose and jerked as he failed to draw breath. "Wait, I-"

With a thud, he hit the floor, unconscious.

At that point everyone's voice could be heard, commenting left and right as Washu hoisted the unconscious boy up under the arms and kicked open the door to her lab.

"Everybody, I'm- just... **shut up**, will you?"

They did.

"I don't know how long he's going to be out," She continued, "but for **now** you're going to have to wait for the answers to your questions, **alright**?"

Six heads nodded.

"Good!" And the scientist dragged Elliot through the door and slammed it behind her.

"I knew I should have strapped him to the operation table..." Washu grumbled as she returned to her console.

* * *

><p>an: The reference to breathing when one's nose is plugged is legitimate. Lucid dreamers commonly use nose-pinching as a test to see if they are awake or not.


	8. 7: Realizations

Pre-story note: In this chapter, I refer to lucid dreams and dream-control techniques. Just so you know. That's what the whole 'Jello' thing is: a mind-over-matter trick a friend of mine uses when he's having a lucid dream.

In other words, our hapless Toto still can't quite wrap his mind around the fact that he's Not in Kansas Anymore.

Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

><p>7: Realization<p>

* * *

><p>"Man, this kid could have been smaller," Washu complained as she clumsily dragged the unconscious boy across her lab.<p>

"Ah, here we go. Hup!" She hefted him back onto the operation table.

Washu's holo-top appeared and she typed a command on it, opening a dimensional hole next to her. She dug around in it and pulled out the straps she was looking for.

"And **this** time," the genius scientist added with a grimace, "you aren't getting away." A two-inch nylon strap on for every limb might have been overkill, but Washu was always one to be sure of things while experimenting. And nylon, she reasoned, is one thing that Mihoshi's luck wouldn't be able to affect too much if she 'happened' to wander in.

Unlike robotic restraints.

Washu set the last strap in place and tightened it. Satisfied that the boy would be completely incapable of wandering around, she let herself take into account the past hour.

'He's unconscious again.' She pondered. 'That could mean a lot of things, and none of them sound like good things right about now.'

"Not good." The scientist mumbled. "And he thought this was all a dream. That... could put him back to square one." She turned and snapped her fingers. "Naja, set him up for readings again and diagnose his mental levels' synapses and co-ordination."

"You named it Naja?"

Washu stopped. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the terminal screen as it began running diagnostics on the boy. The word "conscious" appeared.

"...yes?" the scientist answered, hopeful. She turned. Elliot had tilted his head and now he was looking right at her.

"What sort of messed-up dream is it when you go and name a computer after your old classmate?

Washu paused before answering. "And what if it's not a dream?"

"Yeah, right! Next you'll be telling me that I totaled my truck on that tree, too." He looked back up and got an annoyed look. "I already had to fix up the front end once this school y-" Elliot's head snapped over from the slap that cut his sentence short. He glared back at the scientist.

'All or nothing' she dared herself.

"W- Hey! Why-" Again his words were cut short, this time by a finger placed on his lips. His eyes spelled puzzlement and idignation as Washu removed her finger and crossed her arms.

"Elliot," she began with a flat expression "**Move**."

The boy's eyes trailed down to his wrists. His feet jiggled, confirming to him that they were, too, bound. He sighed knowingly.

Lightly closing his eyes, Elliot thought. 'It's made of jello. Jello. These straps are made of jello, they are made of jello...' In his mind, he imagined his arm shooting off the table and pumping the air.

"JELLO!" He cried out, wrenching his right arm upwards against the nylon strap. His whole body jerked with the kickback.  
>"It... it didn't break?" the boy asked, perplexed.<p>

Washu smacked her head and giggled. "Nice technique, but that sort of thing doesn't work on this side of consciousness."

"Quit rambling, will you? I don't want to spend the rest of this dream strapped to an operation table with you just standing there!"

"Oh, I'm just that annoying, am I?"

"Well... I don't mind you being here in my dream. I just can't do anything while bound to this- Huh? Washu?"

A hug. So powerful when used right.

"Washu, what is it?" The surprised boy asked.

"You can't move... how can that be a dream?" The scientist asked softly from beneath layers of red hair.

Something in the boy's mind switched and he began to well up. "Washu, is-"

"Please don't call me a dream." Washu whispered. "Just don't."

She pushed herself up on her hands and looked down the strange visitor to her reality.

He cried. He didn't know what else he could do, even though he was faced with his greatest wish come true. If anything of what was happening around him was something he could call reality...

"Th-this is... all r-real?" He stammered.

"Yes, Elliot. I'm as real as you are right now," Her voice stiffened. "Which means that all this time you've been romping around here like you couldn't do yourself harm has set back you recuperation period by a number of days."

The scientist stood and crossed her arms. She smiled a little at her patient as he tried to come to grips with reality.

After a minute, he finally calmed down some. "I... I can't believe it. This is all real?"

Washu smacked her forehead and groaned. She was happy to have convinced the boy that he wasn't dreaming up everything, but he clearly wasn't quite taking it all in stride.

"You're definitely going to have to get used to living in a fictional world, Elliot."

His eyes grew big. "You mean I get to stay?" He asked, practically bleeding hopeful excitement.

"Yes. I haven't been able to figure out exactly how you got here in the first place, so you're stuck here for the time being."

Elliot gave a short laugh and smiled like the Cheshire cat.

Washu smiled back. "Plus... I wouldn't want such an interesting study case as you to get sent back home before I could run some tests on it, right?"

The boy's smile went right out the window. "Tests?" He asked apprehensively. "And what do you **mean** you don't know how I got here?" he tugged at his restraints. "You're Washu! The greatest scientific genius in the universe, and you can't figure out how a depressed 17-year-old got pulled into an anime?"

Washu turned back to her console and typed some more. "Nope. That's why I didn't just inject you with some nanomachines and have you all fixed up in half a day. You're a rare enough case that I wanted all variables as unchanged as possible." She finished typing and turned back to the table. "And so, you have to heal all on your own."

"Oh. Okay, I get it." The boy nodded. "But, um, Washu,"

"Yes?"

The boy glanced down at the various nylon straps that painfully confirmed he was indeed not dreaming all this up. "Do you think you could, you know," He tugged and one holding a wrist.

The redhead considered for a minute.

"Alright," She concluded with a grin. "Just promise me you won't go bolting the moment you're free, okay?"

"Agreed."

Washu began to work the straps loose one by one.

"Y'know, Elliot, you really need to watch what you say around the people in this reality."

"What do you mean, Washu?" The boy looked at her quizzically.

"Suppose you were to tell them some fact about their future. They would immediately either plan for or against what you told them would happen, time would change," she poked the boy in the nose with one of the loosed straps. "And YOU would be responsible."

The boy pondered that as the scientist removed the last remaining strap.

"Oh."

"Yes, 'Oh.'" Washu parroted. She straightened up and tossed the straps into a subspace hole.

"That would be... less that optimal." Elliot concluded.

"Now you're getting it." The scientist agreed.

"Yes." He started to sit up, but Washu stopped him.

"I don't think so, Elliot."

"What?" he looked at the redhead, almost pouting.

"You're not getting up for a while yet, so just lay back down, alright?"

The boy groaned and laid back again. "Yes, **mom**." He added, still annoyed.

Washu grinned wide "That's right! Now just stop worrying so much and let your body rest."

The boy grumbled for a minute as the redhead returned to her console, but then heard a familiar sound coming from nearby.

_Some say nothing lasts forever_  
><em>We all run the risk of being lost<em>

Elliot's eyes got big. "Washu? Were did you..." He looked over

The genius scientist cackled and she held up something.

"My laptop?"

"I took the liberty of copying your, ahem, primitive hard drive to my databanks. You had already shown yourself to be a man of music, so I thought that you might find it easier to relax if there was something playing."

_Some hold on, and some never thought to believe  
>To believe...<em>

The boy laughed heartily. "Good guess, Washu,"

He sighed and relaxed some more, his eyelids growing heavy.

"Good guess."

_Remember me_  
><em>Let me see<em>  
><em>Make me believe<em>  
><em>Remember me<em>

* * *

><p>music used:<p>

Matrix: "Remember Me" - watch?v=uYIzHyPkEeM


	9. 8: Moving In

Note:

You might have questioned by now why the transitory characters in this story have a tendency to nod off or suddenly go unconscious. Well, I'll tell you from experience that when someone gets in a nasty car accident like that, they spend a lot of time sleeping due to the extra energy their body is using to knit their bones and re-build their flesh.

As for the conking out, well... let's just say that the mind is a fickle thing, and proving to it that everything it senses to be imaginary is actually real can cause a rather volatile reaction. Remember, big transition means big reaction.

* * *

><p>8: Moving In<p>

* * *

><p>"Okay, is everybody here?"<p>

It was dinnertime yet again at the Masaki house, and its various inhabitants had gathered to eat. Included was their mysterious visitor from Iowa, who at the moment wore an unusually large grin.

"Very well, then," the red-haired scientist continued. "I have an announcement to make."

"This isn't going to end up like the last announcement you made, is it?" Sasami asked with concern.

"There's not another strange man you've been hiding, is there?" The older princess quipped.

"Yeah, what about it, Washu?" Ryoko added.

"Now, now, settle down, girls. I was just going to say that, due to the odd nature of our recent visitor's appearance, he will be unable if not incapable of returning home. Got that?"

A moment of silence passed as everybody thought that over.

Ryoko's head hit the table. "Great." she mumbled.

"Another 'Big Brother', yay!" the young princes exclaimed.

"Oh, dear. This could get interesting." the other thought aloud.

Tenchi sweat-dropped and scratched the back of his head.

"Well, I guess we can handle one more person living here. Why not?" He decided.

"Very well, then. Since none of you seem TOO upset by that," Washu decided, glancing at her much-annoyed daughter.

"He stays." Katsuhito concluded.

The boy, who this whole time couldn't stop grinning, immediately broke out in an odd sort of irregular laugh as he shook his head.

"Haha. Ha, oh man. Oh man, oh man. Heeee...whew!"

Everyone looked at him like he'd lost his wits. He smacked the table.

"THANK you, Washu." Elliot finally declared, regaining his composure. Somewhat.

"And thank you all." He finished. He cocked his head and added, " you've pretty much made my dreams come true."

Again, that big grin. And another awkward pause.

"So, who exactly are you?" Nobuyuke asked the Iowan.

He turned to the redhead. "Is it okay to talk about all that, Washu?"

"Yes, I think the current scenario can handle that." She replied with confidence.

"Very well," The boy concluded, and everyone's gaze fell on him.

"My name is Elliot. I am seventeen and in my final year of high school." He pondered for a second. "Well, really I should say WAS in my final year. I'm from America," A few of the others looked mildly surprised. "But not the America you think of. When and where I come from, all of you," the boy pointed at the various people present, " are seemingly nothing more or less then the imaginations of the great Masaki Kajishima!"

Aside of Katsuhito's raised eyebrows and Washu's snickering, there was no reaction.

"Let me re-phrase that." The boy considered. "Until two weeks ago, I only knew you all to be fictional characters in an anime."

"WHAT?"

Now the others were reacting.

"I knew this kid wasn't quite right!" Ryoko spat out.

"Do you really expect me to believe such a pack of lies, Mister Whoever-you-are?"

"No, not really, Ayeka."

"Wow. What was it like there?" Sasami asked.

"Well, it was the year 2011, if that clarifies anything."

"Yeah, right." Tenchi and Ryoko retorted as one.

"Oh, man. You're from the future?" Nobuyuke asked, aghast.

"Miss Washu, is there any credibility in what this miscreant is saying?" Princess Ayeka demanded. It didn't help that the scientist was fighting off laughter.

"Quite so, Ayeka." She addressed everyone adding, "I've run test on him and scanned his memory. Everything checks out; we actually have a dimensional- and time-traveling houseguest!" She beamed.

"Yes. And currently he's getting hungry," the boy concluded. "Hey, can someone teach me how to use these things?" he added, clicking his yet-unused chopsticks.

Sasami laughed. "You don't know?"

Elliot glared at his place-setting. "No, and I'd like to eat."

Several others groaned and sweatdropped.

"I guess he's really just like us." Tenchi realized.

Washu laughed. "Way to throw off a conversation, Elliot."

"Just like Mihoshi" Sasami giggled.

"Hey, yeah, where is that ditzy space cop? On patrol?" The boy asked.

"Uh-huh. She left yesterday morning." Nobuyuke informed him.

"You were still in Washu's lab...again." Ayeka added with a hint of concern.

Yet another silent moment passed as everyone reverted their attention to their food. Elliot, however, continued to be confounded at the use of chopsticks. One could ask him 'You can hold them, so why can't you use them?' To this he would doubtlessly reply, 'I can hold a guitar, too. That doesn't mean I can play it.' Ergo, his trouble partaking of his favored act of eating.

Again Sasami giggled. "You really do need to learn how to use those, Elliot."

The boy grumbled, but it was a warm-hearted grumble. Washu was the next to break the silence.

"Well, how about it, Tenchi? You finally have a peer in the house." She chimed.

"Yeah, we're both seventeen, huh?"

"And while you can deploy Light-Hawk Wings, he knows all about them." the scientist added, pointing a thumb at Elliot.

"Oh, really? Like what?"

"Well," Elliot started. "They are three-dimensional manifestations of energy from divine eleven-dimMMph!" He failed to finish his description due to the scientist's hand over his mouth. She gave a embarrassed laugh.

"Say, Elliot, let's finish up deciding about you staying here, shall we?" Washu countered with a sweat-drop. The boy nodded, and the redhead lowered her hand.

It's not every day the Greatest Genius Scientist in the Universe is taken by surprise, you know.

"So..." Tenchi thought.

"Since the Masaki house is so full, I think it would be best if our guest stays in my lab." Washu commented.

"Oh, we don't have to do that, do we?" Nobuyuke asked. "I'm sure we can find a room for him to stay in. Somewhere."

Katsuhito nodded in agreement. "Surely, since we've already been able to put a roof over the heads of five extra women, we can house one more person here."

"Yeah, well I've got five planets to spare, so I bet he'll have a bit more elbow room there." Washu retorted. "Besides, I didn't mean just the building's capacity."

"Aww, don't bother arguing," the boy cut in. "I'd rather stay in the lab proper, to be honest."

The others looked at Elliot like he'd just grown a second nose.

"What? Don't look at me like that!" He objected, "So I like labs and gadgets that blow up galaxies. And I like dim lighting. And I sleep on the floor. W- I...so what?"

No response was given. The boy sighed and returned to his food.

A few minutes later, Ryoko stood. "Well, I'm finished. Good cooking, Sasami."

She phased into the kitchen to drop off her dishes and was brushing off her hands as she walked back into the room. She stopped in mid-motion when she noticed Elliot gawking at her.

"That is so cool!" He blurted out.

"Now what?" the pirate demanded. Elliot just shook his head again.

"I just never thought I'd live to see someone teleport." The boy responded.

Tenchi gave a short laugh. "That use to take me by surprise, too." he admitted.

"Oh, yeah? Well are you going to stop staring or do you want to get the chance to see it ever again?" Ryoko shot back at the newcomer.

"Nevermind." the teen hastily added. He returned to his futile attempts at eating a la chopsticks.

Soon the other Masakis and Juraians and Washu in turn finished, left the table, and deposited their dishes in the kitchen. Elliot stood, but Washu snatched up his dishes before he could grab them.

"No need to spill more blood on the kitchen floor." She quipped. "Or broken dishes, for that matter."

"Oh. Well, thank you Little Washu."

The scientist cackled upon hearing her favorite title.

"Don't mention it!" She called from the kitchen.

The out-of-place teenager smiled and sighed. He looked at the floor and was about to let his mind wander (as he usually did when inactive) when a hand suddenly appeared in front of him. Looking up, he saw Tenchi Masaki smiling and offering a handshake.

"You may be a handful, but we're glad to have you, Elliot." he reassured.

Elliot paused as his host's words sunk in. Smiling, he took the proffered hand and shook it.

"Glad to be here." he replied warmly.


	10. 9: Oddities

9: Oddities

* * *

><p>"Okay, run this by me just one more time."<p>

"Really, again?"

Mikumo and Shayne were walking the streets of Jurai not far from the house where they had stayed. The pair meandered here and there around one mini-mountain and along another wall, taking their sweet time before they would set out for-

"The capital," Mikumo stated.

"Uh-huh. It's big," the Texan recalled.

"And it's where we're supposed to go today."

"Well, why don't we **go** there, Mik? Ow!" Shayne's arm stung with the boy's staff-mark.

"I told you thrice already, 'no nicknames!'"

The older teen grumbled. He had been using that abbreviation enough that it had driven Mikumo to annoyance.

"You're really not remembering things too well this morning, are you, Shayne?"

"It's too early," the older boy griped back. "Not noon yet. Besides, we haven't ate yet, and-"

"The capital!" The younger boy cut in. "Where we are going, due to Lady Seto's summons."

"Yeah, Seto. I know I've heard that gal's name before."

Mikumo sighed in exasperation as he walked. How his older companion could even hear that name and just shrug it off as 'some political character he heard of somewhere' consistently baffled him.

And they continued to walk.

"I was given a summons to come to the palace now that I'm awake. As much as I'd like to 'play hooky' on the whole government of Jurai, I doubt that such an act could ever be forgiven, even of me." Mikumo elaborated.

"Then I'm right back to where we were a minute ago!" Shayne cried. "What are me moseying around this suburban area for? I mean, Christ! Let's just get to the royal romp-house already, right?"

The younger of the two suppressed a laugh as the human fumed from his rant.

"Well, here we go," he said, and stopped.

"Unh? What's it?" Shayne asked, back-tracking a couple steps to where the Jurian stood. They stood by a stone shop in the side of the embankment they were walking along. He sniffed.

"Food?"

"Fruit shop." came the reply, and Mikumo entered the low-draped building.

Shayne stood a moment, muttered an "O...kay," and entered as well.

After a minute they both emerged, Shayne gibbering on about the strange, "new" kind of fruit he'd found, and Mikumo glaring at him for making a scene.

"Shayne, it's nothing that hasn't been sold here for the last fifteen millennia."

"And just _where_ is here, boy?" he shot back.

"The capital of Jurai," Mikumo responded automatically with a sigh.

"Exactly!" Shayne retorted. He pivoted on a heel and headed for the shade of the store's exterior overhang. Mikumo rolled his eyes and followed, mentally promising himself that Lady Seto would smack some culture into his companion.

They both sat down and began to eat.

"Hey," Shayne poked Mikumo.

"What is it?"

"What's with this area?" the teen began. "I mean, I haven't seen hardly any electronics all day and it's really clean, too. I mean, back when I lived in Texas I couldn't walk a whole block without nearly tripping over some dude's random trash, and this city's bigger than Huston! And your trees! Jesus, you've got a lot of trees."

"It's pleasant, isn't it? That's why I chose this section of the city to stay in for the time. Plenty of native foliage. If any section of the city has liter then this certainly isn't it, and the people in this neighborhood tend to refrain from excessive use of technology." Mikumo's face twisted in annoyance. "Very much unlike the GP's transit towns. Ugh! All the overwhelmingly in-your-face advertising, and people too busy to give you directions at all! That's how I got lost in the first place."

"Lost?" Shayne inquired through a mouthful of fruit. "What's this 'lost' story you've got?"

Fruit spewed as Mikumo lightly backhanded him. "Don't talk with your mouth full!"

Shayne sat still, one fist clenched, restraining himself from hitting the boy back.

"It's really quite odd," the boy continued obliviously, "that I don't take well to technology. Father once told me that my mother was quite fond of it. Making gadgets and all that." He resumed eating.

"Hang on, what's so weird about that?" Shayne asked.

"I don't know, really. Father said it was odd, and that's that," was all the reply Mikumo gave before returning his attention to his near-finished fruit.

Shayne grumbled. "Give me a break. This fruit's weirder than that."

"Why don't **you** just 'give me a break', Shayne. It's been quite a long time since all that happened, I'll have you know."

"Sure it has."

"Twenty thousand years, give or take a few hundred," The boy recited.

Shayne's last bite of fruit stopped an inch away from his half-open mouth. He set it back down.

"Um, just wondering," the Texan started, "Just, um, what exactly you've been doing for the past however-many thousand years?

Mikumo smiled like he'd won a trophy.

"Sleeping," He beamed.

There was a thick pause as Shayne looked sidelong at the small boy next to him.

"Sleeping?"

"Yes."

"Sleeping." the boy monotoned.

"In a royal tree." explained the 'younger' one.

Another pause passed before there was a small click in Shayne's memory.

"Wait, you mean you actually entered one of the royal trees and were able to stay there unnoticed all that time?" Yet again Shayne wondered where he was getting this inexplicable knowledge of Jurai.

"Yes, though I wasn't unnoticed," Mikumo confessed.

Shayne waved a hand at the boy. "Go away."

"And why?" came the boy's haughty reply.

"Because I don't hang out around liars," the teen gruffly replied.

"Oh, so you don't believe me?" Mikumo scoffed "Hah. Just like all the others!"

"And just how would you, anyways?" Shayne shot back. "Don't you have to be some sort of high-class royal asshole to do that sort of stuff?"

Mikumo whacked Shayne in the head. "Watch your language. And yes, normally one would have to be a high-class royal... bigot, to successfully hide in such a way. They're not sure exactly how I managed to do so, but apparently I'm actually quite powerful."

Shayne stood and attempted to look menacing. "You're not powerful, you're nuts!"

He hastily returned to a squat to keep from getting a staff to the knees.

"Watch it - I'm the one paying for the fruit, Sir Homeless."

They sat in silence for another moment before Mikumo stood. Shayne followed in suit and they continued to walk

"So...where were we going, again?" Shayne asked.

Mikumo smacked his forehead. "To the _palace_, you _idiot_." he seethed.

"The palace?"

"Yes, Shayne."

"Because you were summoned."

"_**No**_, I just like dragging oddly knowledgeable strangers into royal setting and watching the court's reaction." Mikumo drawled sardonically.

"Not that it would be a bad idea..." he added under his breath.


	11. 10: One Sleeps-

10: One Sleeps...

* * *

><p>"Just pick one already," the redhead drawled.<p>

It was starting to become decidedly late, but if there was one place in the world that he could spend a century exploring, Elliot was sure it was Washu's lab.

"I'm not about to give you a grand tour of the place, you know, so just choose," demanded the fatigued scientist. "Especially with the amount of sleep you've gotten lately..."

"I heard that, Lil' Washu!" Said the boy as he walked, toting a blanket as his bedroll.

"Well, live by it, then!" Washu concluded as she followed behind the boy. For the third hour in a row.

Elliot stopped and looked left. He pointed. "What's through that corridor?"

The sleepy genius sighed. "Aqua tanks. Live species storage. Nothing interes- huh?" Her comment was cut short as the boy dashed off down the hall and into the vast room beyond. A squeal of joy sounded out and the scientist followed. She half-smiled, wondering.

"Washu! It's the room! It's the one in the AMV!" And another laughing, squealing noise. "Mass, mass, where's the mass?" He rambled, searching.

Elliot rushed up to a square, dark piece of glass. Laying a hand on it, he looked to the red-haired scientist.

"This's where they were, am I right?"

She nodded.

The boy looked back into the empty room of the Mass and sighed.

Stepping back some ten paces, he sat down and stared up at the glass. And the massively tall pillar it was embedded into. And the overhead walkways. And the miles of glass tubes. And all the WEIRD aquatic life-forms therein.

"You act as if you lived here once, long ago," the scientist noted.

"Only in my dreams," came the boy's winsome reply. "Only when this was a dream."

Finally, he made up his mind. Unrolling the blanket, he scooted onto it before stopping abruptly.

"Erm, Washu,"

"Hmm?"

"Could you do me a favor, Little Washu?"

The redhead nodded slightly.

"My laptop bag, it's got my player in it..."

"Just a minute," came the reply from halfway through a door. And then the door was gone, and the boy was left -one again- to gawk.

"...how does she **do** that?"

Elliot shook his head as if a fly had landed on him, took a breath, and proceeded to ogle everything in sight.

Above and behind him and slanting down to his left stood a massive tube, at least fifteen feet in diameter, through which swam a rather familiar-looking sea serpent. Looking forward, Elliot saw the tubes of aquatic life behind him reflected in the surface of the Mass's tank. He marveled at the greenish, rectangular pillar of marble that the tank was built into.

"Such a troublesome tank." He chuckled.

As the boy's gaze wandered some more, he wondered just how many specimens Washu had stored in the massive tanks around him. He shuddered at the imperceivable depth of the lab when he looked over the edge of the "floor" he sat on, and he traced imaginary patterns that the walkways overhead would have followed.

"Pretty impressive, isn't it?"

"Gaah!" Elliot jumped a little, not having heard any phasing noise to betray the arrival of the redhead. "Washu, you startled me."

The genius chuckled and handed the boy his bag.

"Anything new to tell me?" she retorted.

"Yeah," the boy replied as he grabbed a small item from the front of the bag. "I didn't remember this place having a third floor of walkways," he pointed up and to his left about a hundred feet. "Where's that one lead?"

"Ahh. More lab." came the reply, and he nodded. "More and more and more lab. Five whole planets of lab!"

The boy was skeptical and looked to the other coyly. "Oh, don't tell me you actually have more lab than you want, Washu."

She thought for a minute. "Hmm... Naah!"

Like old friends, they laughed.

"Hey!" Washu changed tone. "You 'remembered', or didn't rather, there being three floors in my lab, and you 'remembered' the mass, and all sorts of things, right?"

The boy stopped messing with the device in hand and nodded, and Washu continued. "Well just where all is it that you're 'remembering' this information from?"

Elliot looked sidelong at nothing sheepishly.

"Well, I only know what's told in the videos..."

'_Hypothesis conformed_' thought the scientist to herself.

"...and the author's novels. And cannon doujin," he finished.

'_Correction: hypothesis probably exceeded_'

"Why, Washu?"

"Just wantin' to know how much you already knew." she replied, masking her thoughts behind a grin. "Good night, Elliot, unless you want me to replace that old, broken-up MP3 player you're struggling with, that is!"

Washu cackled, but the boy took it in stride.

"I'll keep this one, thanks." Even though it had a broken display, it still played music and could be navigated through -slowly- using the buttons on the side.

"It's old, but it's home."

The scientist softened a bit, recognizing the bond between a person and a long-used tool.

"Well, suit yourself."

She took a seat on her ever-ready floating cushion and pulled up her holo-top as the boy curled up in the blanket he'd brought and donned his headphones.

_They say the other side is paradise_  
><em>I live my life to make it there<em>

"It's interesting, really," Washu noted, "You've been transported from one world to another seemingly by chance, and I in all my years of academics and science work haven't even been able to cause that to happen. And I've even wanted to on occasion."

A muffled sound registered as coming from the boy, but it was far from being an intelligible answer.

_I feel my soul being pulled away_  
><em>But I have no purpose to stay<em>

"Yes. Such is the nature of the scientist; to see and think and wish - but not always be able to fulfill those wishes."

Another mumble, clearer this time.

"Hmm?"

"Said it sounds... y'sound like a musician. An artist."

Again the redhead chuckled.

There was a minute of silence in the lab only broken by the slight and tinny sound of music bleeding through the back of the boy's earbuds.

_I'm not what I seem to be_  
><em>There's more to life than what you see in me<em>

"I do wish I could tell if you know as much as you seem to. Just how much is it?"

Silence met the scientist's words.

"Would it be helpful, or would give me reason to keep you locked away down here?"

Again Washu's words were met with silence, and she looked down at the boy curled up on the floor.

'_Fast asleep_' she thought, giving her a smile.

'_I'll ask him about it over breakfast tomorrow_'

A minute later, a boy slept, alone, on the floor of the room he always wished he could stay in.

'_Sweet dreams, Elliot_'

* * *

><p>"Sister, have you ever considered worlds alongside our own?"<p>

"Parallels? What brought that to mind?"

"Oh, just something I've been considering ever since we realized that the Idol mecha will one day be in here."

"Aah. I see." Silence. "No. I had not considered it."

"Tch. Just like you. Too wrapped up in your own little world to consider any other, am I right?"

"Sister, calm yourself."

Another pause.

"Thank you. I was becoming unnecessarily agitated."

"Hm."

"Regardless, I have been thinking of such things because of an oddity in distance."

"Oh? How so?"

"There is a point nearer to connection than it has been, and it has grown unusually close to connection. Extremely close. It becomes more and more so as variables change."

A noise.

"Is this the point."

"It is he."

"Wait, what is that variable? There, that one?"

"I will find out." A pause. "It is one of the Shuink."

"Mifune?"

"No, his son."

"Oh, now that's different." A pause.

"The point character just shifted again."

"Yes. He is so stressed."

"About what?"

"I do not mean stressed as in worried. I mean stressed as in bent. But... both words work."

"No wonder it's causing the bend toward this world."

A long pause.

"I'm going to act upon this."

"Oh, really."

"Yes. I can not let this pass by unrequited."

A sigh. "Sister, you seem so wise at times, but you are indeed rash."

"It works. It has worked."

"Maybe so, but I'll have no part in this."

D3 closed the record. He understood now why Tokimi had said that he wouldn't want or need to get involved.

* * *

><p>songs used<p>

Matrix:

_I Can Fly Now - _watch?v=5gWVO4MR0D8

_Melissa_ - watch?v=AdeizJugfkA


	12. 11:-And One Wakes

11: ...And One Wakes

* * *

><p>...<p>

_dream_

_I'm dreaming? naah I always die in my dreams get killed and fun_

_so I'm me and he's me, too? whatever just run_

_dude, it's Mik! I mean, Mikumo stupid stick_

_yeah "running with stick", or something_

_wait, why am I up here floating, anyways?_

_what the h- why is the tree pulling me into it? that's just weird! THIS is all weird, what's doing on, godda-_

_**Shayne**_

"What the-!"

He awoke, quickly shuttering his eyes.

_'oh, maaaannn That was such a WEIRD dream_' he thought to himself. '_whatever c'mon, Shaynster what's up_'

Shayne opened his eyes fully and immediately pulled back, or rather, tried to. He didn't seem to be able to distance himself from whatever was right in front of his face, even thought he felt himself backpedaling.

"Woah. Trippy."

All the world in front of him looked to him like a massive TV screen picking up nothing but static.

"Heh. Snowflakes."

'_I'm totally still dreaming, aren't I?_'

"Andrews"

Shayne bolted straight upright, as if at attention.

"Shayne Andrews," Said a deific voice behind the teenager. He swallowed a couple times and managed a hoarse reply.

"That'd be me,"

There was silence as the boy tried to figure out just what was going on. And where he was.

A flicker amongst all the visual noise in front of him caught his attention and his mind jumped to it, recognizing it from somewhere. It seemed to become clearer and take form despite the chaos around him, yet...

Still, he couldn't quite make out what it was.

He shook his head, giving up on that, and waited for whatever would be said next. After a moment without any words, his head drooped and he addressed the faceless voice himself.

"Okay. Where am I?"

"We are inside of myself," came the soft reply.

'Wait a second, I know I've heard that before,' the boy thought.

A hand touched his shoulder and the scene changed. Turning around, he saw that he now stood on the very surface of water, and as he raised his head he saw that scattered around were various platforms that were just level with the water and many trees that radiated the purest of light. He ducked his head again, though, and turned halfway back when he saw who it was that had addressed him.

"Tsunami."

"Yes."

'_what, shame?_' the boy thought to himself. '_w...why can't I look at her?_'

He tried to speak, to ask what had happened, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything.

"You're not here to be punished," The serene voice explained. "You're not in trouble."

Another silent moment passed as Shayne tried to look to goddess and respond, only to find himself shaking.

"You're going to have to remember what happened, Shayne. Please, try. For my sake."

The scene before him started to fade and fuzz out as he found his tongue.

"What? Christ, how am I supposed to figure that out?" he shouted as his view returned to static.

Silence. And waiting.

* * *

><p>He waited and failed to act bored, too shaken to lie about his nervousness. And it's not like he could pace to pass the time away. Heck, he hadn't been able to tell if there was any sort of gravity ever since the view had returned to static. His feet rested on nothing, and he felt weightless; the view in front of him (and behind and all around) was a 'snowstorm', a flurry of static like one would see on a television that was off-channel. It seemed to him so close that he could reach out and touch it, but no matter how far he reached or tried to approach the view it remained at its steadfast distance.<p>

And yet so strikingly close to see.

Shayne soon tired of trying to make sense of where he was or what he was seeing or what had happened. It always seemed to catch his eye here and there with something that looked familiar, some teensy-tiny image of something he would recognize, and it just as consistently changed before he could make heads or tails of what it was that had caught his attention.

'_choose one_' came the soothing thought of the goddess.

"Umm... 'kay." the boy thought aloud.

Feeling as if he could recline, Shayne relaxed and stared at one pin-point of infinitely shifting color.

'_color? it looked black-and-white a minute ago_'

His gaze strayed and began to wander until it suddenly locked on to a point that -like many others- had caught his eye. This time, however, he kept looking.

The point did not remain an eye-catch any longer than others had, but quickly again another something flashed up that seemed familiar.

"Hey, it's Elliot."

The image had grown. Now barely large enough to make out what it was that he was looking at, Shayne studied what it was that he was seeing.

'uhhm... that's a lot of whatever that I'm not familiar with'

He blinked, and the image shrank into the image-noise all around him.

"Ah, for Christ's sake. Can't I just see what it is?"

With a grunt, the boy locked his gaze onto another point of light, and this time it very quickly grew and became clear.

'_cool. married, single, old, young, dead... dude, this is starting to make sense!_'

'_push_'

"_wha? Tsunami?_"

There was no answer, so Shayne reached out and tried to touch an image as he focused on it.

'_what's she mean?_'

He felt a weird sort of contact and the image in front of him stabilized and froze where it was. Now the image remained with the person in it as they were.

"Push, she said, push." The boy reminded himself.

'_heh that's what she said_' his mind jested.

And with a "push" of the hand, the person in view became younger.

"What the-"

_'Do you now see?'_

The boy soberly nodded an affirmative and jerked his hand back.

"It is a record of the past, present, and future." Declared the now-unhidden goddess.

Shayne nodded and looked around, amazed and yet decidedly grumpy about nothing in particular.

"God, this is too weird. Why can't I just be told what's going on and get it all over with?" He growled. "Lemme try again."

One last time his gaze came to rest on a point.

"Wait, wait, that's me an' Mik walking from his house!"

On its own will, his hand reached out and "pulled" at the now-enlarging image. The timeline spun forward and sped through-

"Jesus Christ! When did..."

The palace. Mikumo. Shayne.

Seto.

The hall of trees.

...

Tsunami.


	13. 12: Seina Who?

12: "Seina Who?"

* * *

><p>With the resident genius ditz of the Galaxy Police out on another week-long patrol, and with there being chores to be done (and ignored) by some in the Masaki home, and with there being food to be prepared and fields to be tended to...<p>

And with none of the above having anything to do with our mysteriously slidden teenager, we find him once again where he has spent the vast majority of his time: In Washu's lab.

"Y'know, Elliot," the red-headed genius noted to the boy, "most of the readings I can make of you don't even yield any useful information concerning your qualities or origin."

"Really?" Came the reply of the seventeen-year-old. He sat on a floating cushion, bathed in a luminescent, yellow, egg-shaped aura of energy.

"No kidding. Only the most subtle differences show any differentiation between you and any Earth-grown human on the planet."

"You mean the earth in this reality," The boy countered. Yes, he had grown up on Earth -Iowa to be precise- but Tenchi's Earth was clearly having a strange effect on him.

For example, he was having an exhaustingly hard time just making himself sit still and eat his all-American MRE. And NOT freak out about being in his favorite anime. Talking to his prime hero of fiction.

Washu smirked. She wasn't missing a beat of the boy's tension, and it was proving to be both entertaining and a detriment to her testing the boy.

"Try to settle down, okay, Elliot? You're going to mess up those 'subtle differences' if you remain this agitated."

"Washu," the boy demanded.

"Yes?"

"I am sitting in a five-planet-huge scientific laboratory, on a **levitating** cushion, eating an American "Meal-Ready-to-Eat" that is obviously from a surplus store, while in _JAPAN_-"

"And your point is?" The scientist retorted. Elliot smacked himself in the forehead.

"Don't I have at least a little right to be hyper right now?"

They both sat there for a second before busting out laughing.

"Oh, gosh. I think I really do need to loosen up a bit." Said the Iowan through chuckles.

"No kidding! You keep this up and you'll spill all the rest of that 'special imported meal' all over my lab floor."

Elliot looked down from where he sat, buckled over from laughing. "Aww, really?"

"Come on, now. No whining, you know the drill." commanded the other.

With a flick of a switch, the aura dissipated and the teenager hopped down to the lab floor to hunt down a mop and incineration bag.

"Hey, Washu! Care to tell me why you're still using -or having me use- such a 'primitive' cleaning device as a mop?" he snarked.

"Hey, stalker! Care to tell me why you're eating an American MRE while in Japan?" The scientist shot back.

Elliot stopped, mop in hand. His mouth didn't say what it was going to say -maybe it had nothing to say in the first place- but eventually managed to find some words.

"Um... why DID you get me this, Washu?"

The petite redhead also stopped and thought. It wasn't like it had been the simplest of tasks to even get the packaged meal there in the first place, and now no fitting justification for such an action was coming to mind.

"I... I guess... just a friendly gesture." She concluded. "I mean, you have been quite a patient test subject after all!"

The scientist gave off a cackle while the boy just smiled the way people were meant to smile, and then he turned the mop back to the floor.

"Hey, you've been through a lot for a kid less than a thousandth of my age, so why not treat you to something you like?" reasoned Washu "Somehow like..."

"I guess that's true." Agreed the boy. "I mean, heck, with all the info you have on me, you know me better than most of my friends do."

"Oh, yes. Especially after duplicating the data on your hard-drive; that was especially informative!"

"Wait a second." The boy froze, kneeling with his incineration bag of spilt food. "The whole hard-drive?"

A blank stare and nod in reply.

"**All** of it?"

A Cheshire grin answered that, and the boy suddenly got quite red in the face.

"Oh. Well, I guess you know me a bit better than I though." He confessed.

Washu tried to respond, but found herself too stricken with The Tee-Hees to formulate a coherent response. His pride now forcefully set aside for the moment, Elliot finished bagging the bits of his lunch that he had let fall onto the floor in his previous mirth. He stood and chucked the bag into the designated disposal point before turning up the volume on the song he had looped on his mp3 player.

'_"Studio Junkie", huh,_' He thought to himself. '_More like "Lab Junkie"_'.

He grabbed the next green, thick-walled plastic bag of army food and tore it open.

"So tell me more, Elliot." Washu asked, once she had caught her breath.

"What do you want to know about?" He replied, digging around in the bag for something sweet.

"How about 'who'. As in, 'who else do you know of around here?'"

The teen extracted an out-of-place bag of Twizler Bites from the cramped food package.

"When in the world did the US Army start putting these in our troops' MREs?" he asked incredulously.

"Outsourcing," declared the voice of science. "It's an easy trap to fall into."

The boy eyed the package sidelong before sitting and opening it.

"Whatever."

He popped a couple of the candy bits into his mouth, chewed, and proceeded to answer.

"Lemme see... People around -no, connected to- the Masakis."

Washu returned to her floating Cushion-O'-Comfort.

"The Jurai Royal family is currently as follows: Azusa, Emperor; Funaho and Misaki, his wives; Yosho," here he cracked a bit of a grin "their duty-shirking son. And his progeny with Airi being Keyone, married to Nobuyuke, bearing the son Tenchi, who..."

"Who what?" Inquired the redhead, seemingly more cute than normal."

"Nope. I already told you that I'm not going to be making any prophetic statements, so I'm shutting up about it."

Elliot shut his eyes and leaned back against the consol pillar behind him. He reached up and turned the music down.

"I know there's a Mitsuki in there somewhere, but I'm not sure where, and then there are at least two other families: the Kamiki house and the Kurmitsu house. The Kamiki house is that which Seto is in charge of, if she isn't in charge of pretty much everything she wants to be, including the GP. Which brings me to the Kuramitsu family, with... Minako?" Another two pieces of chewy candy entered the seventeen-year-old's mouth. "No, that can't be right, maybe Misato? Mikamo? Eh, I don't know. Mitoto is Mihoshi's mom, and I could really use her help cleaning my room."

The two laughed again at the humor of the space-hopping Kuramitsu mother-turned-cleaning-lady.

"Oohh, boy."

"My, my. You certainly do seem to know your names. Is that all, though?"

"No. By no means is that all, Washu."

He continued on.

"Your rival Doctor clay, as well as your friend at the Science academy on Todain, Naja Akara."

"Naja? I'm surprised that even you would know that name." Washu interjected.

"Oh, I do. She seems like someone I'd really get along with."

"Hmm. You could be right about that."

Another moment, another small helping of Twizler bites.

Elliot continued.

"Random people... Amane, Amagasake, Kiriko Masaki, and of course how could I forget Tenchi's friend Seina, and along with him-"

"Who?"

Washu looked at the boy slightly confused.

"Seina."

"Seina who?"

"Um, Yamada. Seina Yamada."

The greatest genius scientist in the universe grumbled for a second before rising from her comfy spot. Plucking up the open MRE package, she dropped it in the teenager's hands before unceremoniously yanking him off of the lab floor and then shoving him through a portal door.

He followed, and they descended a flight of stairs to a very different section of the lab.

The boy couldn't help but ask himself, "Why do I get the feeling this is going to be happening a lot?"

A few turns later (and after passing some stuff that he was quite certain that he would not live long enough to see the people of Earth create), the two of them arrived in a small, metal-floored data-feed station. It overlooked a vastness that seemed to transcend vastness itself.

"Oh... Um, Washu. could you..?"

"What? What is it?" Washu asked. She followed the boy's finger as it pointed out into the vast nothingness.

"OH!" The scientist exclaimed as she threw a switch. The great void dissipated, replaced by close charcoal-colored walls. The boy relaxed.

"I brought you over here because of a correspondence, or similarity if you will, between your mention of the... "Seina?" character and a certain hole in the continuum. Actually, less of a hole and more of a lack of ending-points for several threads - connections."

"Oh, I see. Then this must be a four-dimensional point overlooking the "fabric" of space-time?" Mused the boy, curiously.

"Close!" Washu praised. "It's actually five dimensions, but you guessed its function spot on."

The boy grinned. "Cool."

'So that's why the headache came.'

"Yes, and it's pretty unusual to find such a correspondence. Quite a surprise, so please," the redhead gestured to a floating pillow as she turned to one of the consoles, "have a seat and tell me more!"

"Sure," Elliot agreed, "but aren't you going to-"

Pause.

"Waitasecond... why is the bag of Twizlers suddenly empty? Washu..."

The Choshin grinned through her "scientific" demeanor. She shoved the remaining handful of Twizler bits into her mouth and sat back down on her hovering pillow.

"So, who is this 'Seina' character, anyway?" she asked, through her full mouth.

The boy grimaced at his loss of munchies, but continued.

"Well, his surname is Yamada. He has a sister, Yoshiko, and mother and father."

"Who?" Washu asked

"I don't remember. Anyways, by some twist of luck, Amane Kaunaqe found him at the Masaki home when she came to recruit Tenchi for the GP, so she gave him a handout -after her usual flirting- and Seina took an interest. Jump ahead a few months, and the GP had made him the captain of the Kamidake, a decoy ship for luring in pirates."

"My, my."

"In time he became the scourge of pirates. All he would have to do would be to call for a random warp and -Bam!- there would be pirates for the take-out squad to clean up... or for Lady Seto to have fun with." They both grimaced inwardly at that last remark.

Washu pondered for a second before rising again.

"If you will, Elliot... try to look at this."

"Um... very well," Agreed the boy.

Red hair obscured young hands as they typed and commanded the nearly-eldritch machinery.

And the void retured.

Elliot squinted at the indescribable depth of darkness he was beholding. Not darkness in an evil sense - just a lack of light, lack of mass, lack of existence... a lack of everything! So much infinitely more than he could take in even if he were able to perceive every bit of the void of space that is in our three dimensions all at the same instant.

It was seriously starting to mess with his head.

"Over there, Elliot! On your...'Right'" ordered the scientist.

The boy turned his head... left. And his vision shifted right and a little down, so he moved his head... forward, and that corrected it.

"Washu..."

"Hang in there, human," Washu comforted the boy as she took his hand. "I've got you."

Elliot took a deep breath and focused his eyes on the over-vision before him.

"The pock-marks and tiny, frayed patches are what I'm referring to." Washu explained. "Now hang on a minute..."

The view beheld by the Iowan narrowed to a pinpoint as the whole of everything around him condensed into a single hyper-sphere.

"I'm keeping the five-dimensional space out of view as much as possible, but that _3_-sphere 'glome' is the texture-space you'll have to put up with to see this."

The boy sighed. "If you start talking about Octonians, I'm going to have to slap you Washu..."

'_Or kiss you_' he added in thought.'

Elliot returned his attention to the ineffable shape before him.

"Okay, I can see the inconsistencies aligning on the... hypersphere? Right?"

"Correct." Came the reply.

The vision before him held steady before returning to the charcoal walls, and then changing again to a very familiar section of Washu's lab.

"Oh, boy. I hope I never have to force that much beauty through my eyes again." Elliot marveled at his simplistic, flawed memories of the past two-thirds of a minute.

Washu was a little ways off, looking through some books. "You will. Knowing Tokimi, you will."

The boy didn't even bother to try to reply to that. He just sat down at the holo-top before him and let out a sigh. Again.

The next thing he knew, he was holding a book of terminal commands and standing in a very 80's sci-fi area of the lab.

"Um... what?"

Washu cackled. "Go on, Elliot! You've got a lot of data to crunch, considering how much you must know or have data on concerning this 'Seina Yamada'!"

The petite genius pushed the seventeen-year-old to the console there and switched on the screen.

"Oh, and I think you'll want this." she added, handing over the boy's laptop bag. "Have a good time! And don't forget to eat every now and then. Ta-taa!"

And with a door and a phase, all 4' 4" of her were gone like the wind.

"...'kay." Elliot concluded, and turned to examine the book in his hands.

* * *

><p>Data was being inputted to Washu's mainframe computers.<p>

Rather, memories of an anime floated from an HP Pavilion ze4900 laptop screen into a 17-year old's eyes, through his fingers, and into the computer's databanks via the keyboard. The keyboard that, just a hour earlier, he had no clue how to use.

"Maaaannn... This layout trumps Dvorak!"

And the boy was grinning like a maniac.

Why? Because he had the run of the lab -or at least this square mile of it- and was currently blaring his 80's glam metal tracks as loud as he could stand.

And singing along.

Yes. Elliot was grinning like a total freaking nutcase metalhead.

Unbeknownst to the high-school senior, a space pirate of five millennia was standing outside the door to that same section of her mom's lab.

She was staring at the sign on the door.

The sign that read, in blaring 72-point Comic Sans MS font:

NO SWEARING IN THE LAB

Ryoko stared at the sign a little longer before promptly opening the door... to be met by a wall of sound that threatened to toss her right back out of the lab.

_I HAVE NO FEARS_  
><em>I HAVE NO REGRETS<em>  
><em>I HAVE NO NEED TO APOLOGIZE<em>

The ex-pirate made her confused way to the other side of the room, where she made quick work of finding the boy.

_DON'T TELL ME_

"What the-?"

_DON'T GIVE ME_

He turned to her, and -yes- grinned like an absolute lunatic.

_DON'T TEACH ME_

"Welcome to Cat Invader's Data-Crunch Center! Can I be of service to you?"

_I CAN'T BE DECEIVED!_

"Oh, it's you" she replied, leaning on the back of the chair the teen sat in.

Elliot reached over to the amps he had placed nearby.

"Hang on, lemme turn this down!"

He did so... by a little.

Ryoko shook her head. "Yeah, so... have you seen Washu around here?"

"Erm, can't say that I have." Came the younger one's reply, with a blink.

The cyan-haired one stared at Elliot, then at his hands on the keyboard, then at the screen that quickly switches from a Notepad text file to VLC playing a clip of Tenchi Muyo GXP. With Seina getting sold off by his family to become a Galaxy Police cadet.

Again Ryoko looked at the seemingly metal-crazed teenager.

Again, the madcap, Cheshire grin.

"Um, just what... _are_ you?" She asked.

_DON'T USE ME FOR_

"I am ...a seventeen-year-old human!" Elliot replied, thinking to himself that he sounded far, far too much like his brother.

_EVIL, EVIL, EVIL THAT MEN DO_

"Hey, Ryoko, when or if you find Washu, could you do me a favor?"

_evil, evil_

"What's that?"

_evil that men do_

And of all the times for a princess to arrive, "ah, there you are... Elliot."

_eviiil, eviiil_

"Making sure that Ryoko isn't with Tenchi?" he observed at Ayeka.

_evil that men do_

The Jurian began to reply indignantly, but was cut off by the sudden wail of Dale Thompson and the dramatic build in the music.

_**EEVIIILL**  
><strong>EEVIIILL<strong>_  
><strong><em>EVIL THAT MEN DO!<em>**

The princess' eyes went wide open.

"My, that man has quite a voice. Is it enhanced in some way?"

**_EVILEVILEVILEVILEVILEVILEVIL EVILEVIL THAT MEN DO!_**

"Not a bit, my princess. That voice is one-hundred-percent natural Kentucky vocal chords!"

_**EVIL! EEEVIL!**_

"You've got to be kidding me." Ryoko deadpanned, astounded and caught off-guard by the flamboyant and nearly ostentatious music. She wilted.

_**EVIL THAT MEN DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**_

As the song ended, Elliot reached over and stopped the player before the next song began. There was a moment of stunned silence as the two others tried to come to grips with what their ears had just witnessed. Ryoko was the first to recover.

"I... think I have... some chores to do... or something."

"Finding your mom" the boy contributed.

"Right! Find mom. Got to find.. mom." the cyan-haired woman mumbled as she floated off, slightly dazed.

After a minute, Ayeka was able to regain her composure and opened her mouth to say something, but just barely hesitated.

"Tenchi's out in the fields, isn't he?" cut in the teenager.

Ayeka's mouth snapped shut and she half-turned away.

"Ah, yes. That's right."

The princess demurely hurried off, muttering a couple variants of "Must find Washu."

Again, the grin... just barely keeping the boy's demented laughter contained as he giglishly loaded another track.

* * *

><p>songs used<p>

Dale Thompson: _Studio Junkie_ - watch?v=7udf-qF6U8o

Bride: _Evil that Men Do_ - watch?v=E57sOOeyycY


	14. 13: Seto and Trees

13: Seto and Trees

_andrews_  
>.<p>

_yes_  
><em>.<em>

_what are you watching?_  
>.<p>

_things_  
><em>.<em>

_yes, things ַַַַַַ what are you studying shayne?_  
><em>.<em>

_._  
><em>what has happened<em>  
><em>.<em>

_are you not happy to have your memories back?_  
><em>.<em>

_._  
><em>happy?<em>

_._  
><em>happy ַַַַַַ content if that makes more sense to you<em>

_._

_i will be happy when this makes sense_

_._  
><em>what do you refer to?<em>

_._  
><em>uh-huh ַַַַ all of this ַַַַ all of that<em>

_._  
><em>shayne, what are you referring to?<em>

_._

_i arrived ַ in ַ you from the hall of trees_

_._  
><em>for it is my home ַַַַַ i reside beneath all the trees of jurai<em>

_._  
><em>yes and ַַַ somewhere else in the palace is where i ran from until i stumbled into all the trees<em>

_._  
><em>what of it?<em>

_._  
><em>i was running from<em>

_._

_yes?_

_._  
><em>your people<em>

_._  
><em>do you mean mikumo?<em>

.  
><em>Don't play Dumb with me, Tsunami<em>  
><strong><em>Andrews<em>**

_._  
><em>yes<em>

_._  
><em>you were running ַַַַַַ explain what you saw<em>

_._  
><em>why?<em>

_._  
><em>for you<em>

_._  
><em>.<em>

_that crazy b- ַַַַַַַַַ woman ַַ wanted me to stay_

_._  
><em>but you probably already knew what seto is like<em>

_._  
><em>true ַַ though i Had forgotten she isn't funny when i'm the one she's looking at<em>

_._  
><em>shanyne andrew ַַ you are here for a purpose<em>  
><em>Bull<em>

_._  
><em>You are here for a purpose, Shayne Andrews.<em>  
><em>then tell me<em>

_._  
><em>that is not for even me to know but it is to be<em>

_._  
><em>sure ַַַ you didn't even bring me here ַַ unlike that prettyboy of yours<em>

_._  
><em>no shayne i did even if i did not know it at the time, i did<em>

_._  
><em>jesus that doesn't even make any sense<em>  
><em>shayne<em>

_._

_yes_

_._  
><em>you are here ַַ so you must have a purpose ַַ all things happen for the<em>  
><em>yea yeah i've heard that one before<em>

_._

_what is it shayne?_

_._  
><em>when did you move us from the static to these blocks in your tree ַַַ room? ַַַ area?<em>

_._  
><em>when did i not? ַַַ this is all inside of me ַַ the tree<em>

_._  
><em>gee thanks ַַ makes about as much sense as Seto Elliot Mikumo Earth and HERE<em>  
>"Shayne, I will not be talked down to. Know your place, or move not from here."<p>

_._

_._

_._  
><em>okay ַַַַַַַַַ just don't expect me to help you willingly<em>

_._  
><em>fear not for there is no other way to help<em>

_._

_._

_let me get this un-reversed ַַַַַַַ i went with mikumo to the palace ַַַַ he brought me as a gag hoping that seto would go lightly on him because he brought an oddball ַ me ַ with him_

_._  
><em>keep going<em>

_._  
><em>i remembered about seto just as we came to her, and bolted ַַַַַ scared ַ and then mikumo did something to anger seto and i found the room with all the trees<em>

_._  
><em>and i rescued you<em>

_._

_rescued ַַַ Yeah right. you're more like a savior-captor than help to me_

_._  
><em>shayne ַַ please don't hate me for moving you out of your circumstances<em>

_._

_._

_if i ever forgive You, i'll make sure to let You know._

_._  
><em>Thank you, Shayne Andrews. Rest.<em>

* * *

><p>an:

The formatting and punctuation in this chapter is intentional. It is intended to create a variable mental tone in which the characters are mentally 'talking'.


	15. 14: D5

14: D5 (The Hole in Time and Space)

* * *

><p>"This is all very interesting, Elliot, but it seems to me that there's something about this boy "Seina" you're leaving out."<p>

Washu and her latest scientific interest were sitting on a small platform overlooking a vast forest. Behind them was the scientist's usual perch for typing and simulation control, and between them lay a half-emptied plate of Takoyaki they had swiped from the kitchen.

"You know, Washu, I didn't think these snacks would settle well with me, but I believe "I've actually taken quite a liking to Japanese food. What are these called again?" he pondered, holding up one of the squid-infused food balls.

"Hey, changing the subject is my shtick."

The boy shoved the food into his mouth in exasperation. "Idunno! He was really unlucky, I guess."

The redhead tilted her head, skewing the tiny glasses she wore. "Hmm?"

"Well, yeah." Elliot continued. "That was the whole point of his existence in the GP, it seems. He had absolutely horrible luck."

Washu looked at him flatly.

"Really! They called him the 'Unluckiest boy in the universe'. Katsu-, I mean Yosho wouldn't even bother to do the ritual bad-luck cleansing ceremony, saying that Seina was too unlucky for it to make a difference."

"Maybe he had the bad luck to be left out of you continuum." The scientist snarked with a smirk.

Elliot laughed and continued. "The funny thing about it is that, when he was around the four - that is Amane, Ryoko Balta, Kiriko, and... that one priestess girl whose name I can never remember - his luck seemingly reversed. Neju! That's the girl's n-"

Washu set down her snack and leaned toward the boy incredulously.

"Reversed luck? What kind of joke are you trying to pull, Elliot?" she demanded.

"Hey! YOU'RE the one who proved it as being scientific, The boy replied, hands in the air. I mean, in the other continuum."

Washu looked back at him over her undersized specs. "Did I."

"Yes," he nodded. "And when did you start wearing those glasses again?"

The doubtful look that had been chiseled onto the scientist's face slipped and then changed to a look of annoyed resignation.

The boy returned to eating the "foreign" food and marveling at the scenery. A minute later, the voice next to him spoke.

"Elliot."

"Yeah?"

He looked up from tray of snacks to see the scientist's serious stare.

'Uh-oh.'

"...I swear, Elliot, every time you open your mouth it means more hassle for me."

She stood and headed for her usual spot for computing.

"Or for the both of us," added the boy.

"Keep talking," the scientist ordered from her holo-top seat.

"Uhm... well, you made a little sister to Ryo-Ohki. 'Fuku', or 'Fuku-Ohki'?"

"I don't see why in the galaxy I'd do that for anyone." Washu stated, crossing her arms before quickly adding "Except Tenchi!"

"Well, Seina did end up with eight wives at the end of the series."

"And Fuku?"

"Yeah, her too." Elliot concluded with a blush.

The scientist pondered for a minute as she typed.

"This boy sounds like an anomaly. Not at the level of that of Tenchi, but still..."

There was a moment of quiet as Washu finished up typing and stared at the data on the screen.

"Elliot?" She began. The boy stopped in mid-snack.

"Uh, yeah?"

She gave him a tiny, tiny smile. "We're taking a trip to Tokimi."

* * *

><p>Elliot had always wondered how Doctor Clay and Z had managed to travel to the domain of Tokimi. It was a twisted place, bent and warped by the close proximity to the deity who lived to create dissonance and unbalance in the perfect harmony of her own world. Washu and Tsunami and she had created the world as an experiment, and her job was to mess with the variables.<p>

'_No wonder she's such a pain to get along with'_ the teen figured.

He had been dragged halfway across the universe -literally- by the great scientist, and the closer they got to her sister's location, the more uneasy he got about it. The Ryo-Ohki continued to pass pier after pier in a row, moving past an eternal waterfall, floating pyramids, a tree-growing planet, and down, down, down toward the light in the distance that threatened to blind the young man.

"Here."

The boy wondered as Cyclops-style shades were passed into his hands.

"They'll keep you from going blind, as well as help you with what you have to do."

Elliot didn't find the scientist's words to be very reassuring, but he simply sighed and donned the visual aid. He had already resigned himself to whatever was ahead of him.

For a minute, the boy spaced out. He tried to remember what he could about the darker goddess, but somehow flying in an expanded cabbit through fields of objects that defied either the laws of physics or probability -or both- was becoming very distracting.

Before he really had time to collect his thoughts, the two of them were standing on the pedestal before the jewel of D3.

"At least seeing this particular demigod won't be hard on my mind, right?"

The demigod appeared.

"Wrong," came the thunderous voice of D3. "To govern over a dimension, an entity must have a dimensional value greater than the governed plain by a value of at least... One."

Washu grabbed the boy by the arm and held him steady with a surprising amount of strength.

"D3," She addressed the over-seer solidly, "I wish to see my sister."

"As you are?" D3 inquired.

"Yes. Is there a problem with that?" retorted the four-foot-four goddess.

"I was referring to your companion." amended the over-seer.

Washu nodded. "He is necessary,"

"And he is looking you dead in the face, D3!" Elliot shouted out.

Absolute silence followed, and the boy grimaced.

D3 sighed and, with lidded eyes, began to fade. "You should learn your rightful time to assert yourself, boy."

Again the young one grimaced, hanging his head and mentally kicking himself for lacking restraint. The boy felt something brush his shoulder and then a word was dropped in his ear.

"Relax..."

A moment passed.

"Okay," came two replies. Elliot quickly looked to see who had spoken with him, but he knew the voice.

"Tokimi!" He whispered.

"Yes," she replied before shifting her attention to the scientist. "What brings you here today, and in such strange circumstances?"

"My companion knows" Washu stated, emphasizing 'knows', "the missing piece near Tenchi."

Tokimi's gaze snapped to Elliot. The boy looked away.

She kept looking at him and addressed Washu. "How does he, sister?"

"He just does, sister," Washu replied, in a glib manner. She took the boy's hand.

"Very well," the deity retorted. "What is he?"

No reply was given.

"Is he an anomaly that I have been unaware of?"

"Who, Elliot? No, but the missing piece might be."

There was a pause as the world-bending Choshin considered this. "Very well," she concluded. "I will show you to D5. Such oversight should be all that is necessary. I will return to this, once the piece is complete, and form a matrix for it."

"Thank you, sister."

Elliot tried to look Tokimi in the eye, but could only level his gaze up to her hands. Even so, he brought himself to whisper up a simple "yes, thank you."

"It's not like this is going to make my job any worse." muttered the Choshin as she faded back into her shadow behind her.

The platform on which the two three-dimentionals were standing began to glide silently left. The Iowan there shuddered at the massive scale and depth of everything around.

"She's you times you plus you again. It's only natural that you'd have trouble focusing on all that at once." the redhead reasoned. "Even Zero had trouble being near her, you know."

"I guess... that's a slight reassurance? Thanks."

The boy's reply made it clear to Washu that his attention had shifted mainly from the incredibility of the place they were in to the impossibility of the task ahead of him.

'_No, us. Both of us._'

The platform soon stopped before one of the dimensional gems.

"D5" called the veiled Choshin, and a figure-head appeared before the two visitors. "My Lady," replied the soft, computeresque voice.

"These two are to direct plans for a tesser patch. Oversee the process."

"As you say, my Lady" the overseer uttered. It addressed the two on the platform. "Come forward."

The space between the platform and the keeper of the fifth dimension shimmered, showing a path to and beyond it. Elliot's eyes were drawn along the path and up to D5.

It had human eyes, unlike D3, and its mouth was above its eyes on both sides of its split, hammerhead of sorts. Its beige forehead narrowed and sloped down to meet the cream-green tone of its face, but no further human comparison could be made.

"Pass through to the terrace."

Washu strode forward and stopped a few paces out.

"Come on, little boy. We've got work to do."

Rubbing himself nervously, Elliot followed out onto the invisible path. He shuddered as he passed through the face of D5 and soon had to close his eyes at the sheer weirdness beyond.

"It's... it's like watching the laws of physics make out with themself...while cross-dressing," he whispered, hoarse.

"Shush, Elliot," The scientist warned, fighting off a smirk. "You need to open your eyes and adjust."

Slowly, the boy complied. Like Washu had advised earlier in her lab, he tried to focus on clarifying one area into terms that his mind could make sense of. "Okay," he added, at length. "I can think again."

"Very good," Washu said, thankful. "Now, keep your eyes looking there but focus on different areas of the space you can see."

"Okay..."

"Do you see the void, or 'null area'? It'll probably seem to be to your 'right'".

"It is," The boy agreed.

"That's the area in which we're working."

"I will lower the dimension," D5 declared softly, and the null area seemed to expand in front of Elliot, throwing off his focus and perspective yet again.

"Hey, Elliot," Washu drawled, "pick a song that fits this setting."

The boy didn't move his head or even blink. "A...song?" he gasped as he stared only at one point on the over-space, trying weed out all the perspective he couldn't compute or comprehend.

"Yes. It will help you to relax if you are sensing something familiar while 'writing', okay?"

The boy nodded just barely and clenched his eyes, searching through the record store in his head for a song he could call fitting.

"Um... _Diamond Skies_. Live Broadcast... is the band."

Elliot tried to empty his over-active mind as the music began. He waited for it to deepen, for the song to become big enough that the part of his mind always running ahead of him would fall into the music and be calm.

It did. Just when the singers wrapped their voices around his mind, the small hands of a friend wrapped around the boy's.

_Pierced velvet with shining glass fragments; I let one fall_  
><em>Let the burn commence<em>

He calmed and soon opened his eyes.

As before, the space around him seemed to thicken the further away it was from him until it was too complex to understand or even observe. He ignored that.

_Take your pick; in the diamond sky your path is set  
>The stars collide<em>

"Elliot," the scientist asked, "are you ready?"

"...yes. Let's begin, Washu."

They smiled.

_Take my hand we'll walk from here_

His hands rose, guiding the ones that resting on them. One by one, the silent points within the null area were noted and connected, a tribute to how much simple knowledge the boy passively glanced through in deciding on every point.

_And never shed another tear for days gone by that could have been but never were_

His decisions were true. Every point that he noted, Washu touched, connecting to all the others and back to D5.

In time, the whole was complete and the hole filled with new reality. Time and space -torn- had been presented a patch, and the role of readying reality to be mended would be passed on to Tokimi.

_And I've got you safe in my arms, child_

Elliot sighed and closed his eyes, glad to be free of the dimensional strain. He reached up to the sides of his head, unclipping the visor. Washu's hands remained holding the boy's head as he removed the visor and held it in his lap.

She hummed a note. "You... your mental activity seems to be normal. About normal."

The teen chuckled, lightly, not wanting to give himself a headache.

"Thanks, Washu."

Elliot looked up slowly and squinted hard at the grand depths of the hyper-space. He could just barely make out the appearance of Tokimi s "sewing" on of his new temporal patch.

Both the redhead and the teen thought to say something, but neither could think of what. The boy's mind was far too filled with all the existence around him. Washu knew that.

No more was said. They sat there together on the overlook until long after the song had finished, patiently waiting upon the mood.

* * *

><p>song used:<p>

Live Brodadcast: _Diamond Skies -_ watch?v=nt2if9-2bS0

I have posted a picture of D5 (from OVA3:6) on photobucket, but I can't post the link. Do send me a message, though, if you want said image. (Or watch the episode again...)


	16. 15: Break Out of the Trance

15: Break Out of the Trance

Static. Stasis. Equilibrium.

Static. Stasis. Equilibrium.

Static-

"Tsunami."

Well, so much for stasis.

'What is it, Shayne Andrews?'

"Do you think we could talk for a minute? Out of this static-TV-globe-thingy? With, you know, WORDS?"

'Is it truly difficult for you to communicate in thought, Shayne Andrews?'

"Heck if I know. I just think it's weird to 'talk' like that after growing up talking. You know, with my mouth."

"I see." sighed the goddess as she manifest them both in her chamber of trees. One of the trees shimmered, bringing forth a tea-table set for two. Tsunami sat.

"Uhm... when... how did that get there?" inquired the boy. No reply was given. "Okay. Nevermind, I guess."

He sat opposite of the goddess and examined his cup.

"You've caused quite the stir in the palace," began Tsunami after a sip of tea. "The trees still murmur about it now."

The teen simply stared into his cup as the goddess poured him tea. "Sounds like I've been in here a while."

The figure opposite of him smiled, knowing how different one's perception is from within time.

"You don't need to be concerned about that. We are within myself; here time does not run out."

A moment of silence passed over the waters before the goddess spoke again.

"You said you wanted to talk."

Finally the scowling teen took a sip of the tea and found his voice again.

"Yeah. You mind telling me what happened back there? In the palace I mean."

"What can you tell me?" the goddess rebutted.

"That's my point - I don't remember all of what happened, and I don't like what I've seen in your... static." He waved at nothing in particular. "Whatever that is."

"It is all the trees and all the time of Jurai," Tsunami explained. "What you saw is what happened and no more."

"So, let me get this straight. I went to the palace with Mikumo, saw Lady Seto, recognized her... and bolted?"

"You ran, yes. That is what the trees saw."

Again Shayne scowled and mumbled. "Yay. I'm a coward." He took another drink of the strange brew. "So I ran, right? And I fell? Into... a tree?" He smirked at his last words.

"You found me, or rather I met you, in the hall of Jurai's royal trees." she conceded before pouring more tea for herself. " The Lady had become quite angry and you were helpless to escape her - even though you could do her no good."

She raised her cup to drink again.

"The Devil Princess was angry. And so you imprisoned me."

The goddess looked over the rim of her cup. "How so?"

"Well, I'm stuck here, aren't I?" the teen barked.

Tsunami did not answer, but finished off her tea in one pull.

"...I seriously fell into a freaking tree?" The teen hissed through a grimace.

Tsunami's cup clinked onto its plate and she opened her eyes again, forcing Shayne back into the static.

* * *

><p><em>Who's in charge of this program here?<br>Break out of the trance_

Again Shayne stood trapped in an endless scene of static. With a tea-cup.

"Seriously?" he raged. Looking down at his tea, the boy paused and soon found himself becoming more patient. He took a sip and thought aloud.

"I fell into a tree. Wow."

Another sip.

"But... That doesn't change the fact that I'm here. Now."

_I can't get anywhere advancing to the rear  
>Break out of the trance<em>

"But falling into that tree somehow led me here. To Tsunami. To this... place, I guess. Could a tree lead me out? Couldn't it? But... what tree is there..." he trailed off, again pulling at his tea.

He pondered, and, thinking back to his conversation with the goddess, one thing she said stuck out to him: "It is all the trees and all the time of Jurai," Tsunami had explained to him.

"Hey, yeah! 'What you saw is what happened,' she said... so, this static can actually be everything that's going on right now? Really?"

_We all know you haven't lost your mind  
>But if you close your eyes, it's the same as being blind<em>

Shayne finished off his tea and slipped the cup onto his pinky before trekking 'over to' one edge of the static.

"Still wish I knew how that happens."

He reached out his hand and arbitrarily poked at one static 'flake', steadying it. He 'pushed' at it, forwarding carefully through all of the years' sights of the tree he had touched upon until it stopped.

"So it comes to the end, which is... now? I guess."

_We're under the stupor of the ritual we keep_

He looked for a second before letting his train of thought wander. "So... what next? What I'm seeing is what's happening now, okay. So I know what's going on. Maybe if I could fit through it, it would work the same way that got me stuck in here."

He stopped, realizing he could be on to something. Staring at the view he had chosen, Shayne reached his other hand out, the teacup falling from it, and tried to toy around with the bit of static he was keeping stable.

"There's got to be a way. I can do this." he muttered to himself.

He soon found a sort of grip on the view for each hand, and he found it had some give to it. Forcing himself to be patient, he began to pull the image toward him, enlarging it as it approached, arcing toward him. The view became quite clear - looking out of a Jurian's tree and through a shallow woods. Beyond lay a road, passing and turning away to the right into the outskirts of the capitol.

_The routine is comforting  
>Don't want to face the unknown<br>And so we give up our shot at the freedom we're shown?_

Shayne twisted his grip on the image-gate around him, turning his hands backwards. He slowly let the image shrink behind him, passing him fully out of the static place of Tsunami and into the tree. He looked back at the image as is shrank as much as he let it, until he felt it stop pulling, and Shayne noted how it remained as large as he had left it.

"Looks like getting back won't be a problem," He rolled his eyes. "IF I ever would want to go back."

He was, truly and completely, in a Juraian's tree. Yes, the boy was clueless as to whose is was, but he was there nonetheless.

_Go and take what you've been taken for!  
>You can't miss it - there's only one real door...<em>

"Okay, okay. I can see this tree's... space. And outside. Cool."

_Break out of the trance_

"Let's go, Shaynester."

_Break out of the trance_

He wasn't even sure how, but as he tried to step out of the tree... he stepped out. He walked from the dim, grainy, pool-like atmosphere of the tree's interior into the sunlight filtering through the leave above, and he smiled.

_Break out of the trance_

Then he looked back at the tree. The very solid, unopen, inaccessable safety of the tree he had just left.

Wait... what trance?

* * *

><p>music used:<p>

Greg X. Volz: "Break Out of the Trance" - watch?v=TOcWdce_OFQ


End file.
